Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 3:11

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

11. than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ ] “He does not say , laid, but , lying, of His own accord.” Wordsworth. There is a reference here to the prophecy in Isa 28:16, which is quoted and applied to Christ in 1Pe 2:6. See also Eph 2:20, and Psa 118:22, quoted and applied to Himself by Christ in Mat 21:42. It is to be noticed that it is no doctrine about Christ, but Christ Himself that is laid as the foundation. For upon Christ every act of the Christian, every faculty the Christian possesses, nay, his very life depends. ‘Without Me,’ i.e. cut off from Me, separated from Me, ‘ye can do nothing,’ St Joh 15:5. See also ch. 1Co 1:9, and note. “Without the evidence of this inward life in men, it is impossible to imagine either Christian or Church.” Olshausen. “The Apostle preached Christ Christ the Example Christ the Life Christ the Son of Man Christ the Son of God Christ risen Christ the King of Glory.” Robertson.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For other foundation – It is implied by the course of the argument here, that This was the foundation which had been laid at Corinth, and on which the church there had been reared. And it is affirmed that no other foundation can be laid. A foundation is that upon which a building is raised; the foundation of a church is the doctrine on which it is established; that is, the doctrines which its members hold – those truths which lie at the basis of their hopes, and by embracing which they have been converted to God.

Can no man lay – That is, there is no other true foundation.

Which is Jesus Christ – Christ is often called the foundation; the stone; the cornerstone upon which the church is reared; Isa 28:16; Mat 21:42; Act 4:11; Eph 2:20; 2Ti 2:19; 1Pe 2:6. The meaning is, that no true church can be reared which does not embrace and hold the true doctrines respecting him – those which pertain to his incarnation, his divine nature, his instructions, his example, his atonement, his resurrection, and ascension. The reason why no true church can be established without embracing the truth as it is in Christ is, that it is by him only that people can be saved; and where This doctrine is missing, all is missing that enters into the essential idea of a church. The fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion must be embraced, or a church cannot exist and where those doctrines are denied no association of people can be recognized as a church of God. Nor can the foundation be modified or shaped so as to suit the wishes of people. It must be laid as it is in the Scriptures; and the superstructure must be raised upon that alone.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 3:11

Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The one foundation

I. Men often try to lay another foundation.

1. Reason.

2. Self-righteousness.

3. The goodness of God.

II. They will all fail. Because–

1. Unauthorised.

2. Insufficient.

3. Delusive.

III. Christ is the only foundation.

1. Divinely laid.

2. Suitable.

3. Strong. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

No other foundation

I. In building, the first thing essential is the foundation.

1. A foundation should be broad and deep enough for the structure.

2. God Himself has appointed such a foundation (Isa 13:16).

3. There is but one foundation, and it is laid for all men.

II. Christianity is something more than a foundation–it is a building.

1. Christianity provides for regeneration of character.

2. The building is of gold, silver and precious stones.

3. Or it is of wood, hay and stubble.

III. Every mans work will be tried.

1. The trial is to be as by fire.

2. There will be most astonishing revelations at this time of trial.

Some whom you havent counted as amounting to much in this world-behold how their buildings loom up in the light of that day. Others shall suffer loss–wood, hay, stubble, all consumed. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

The one foundation. Christ is the sole foundation

I. Of all saving knowledge.

II. Of all acceptance with God.

III. Of all holy obedience.

IV. Of all true happiness, and this both in the present world and the future. (W. Romaine, M. A.)

The one foundation

I. The foundation. Christianity stands opposed to every system that has entered into the mind of man. It is an original system founded upon Christ Himself. So distinct is it from all that existed before, that it changed the whole system of public worship, and overthrew the altars of heathen idolatry. And if men deny that it was done by Divine influence, the onus rests upon them to show how it was effected. Christianity is intended as that which is to lay at the foundation of all our hopes, to the overthrow of all the imaginations and discoveries of man when left to himself.

II. The laying of this foundation.

1. The public way is to simply lay down the doctrines of salvation.

2. A personal way consists in my bringing Christ, by faith, to my own soul, and saying, with Thomas, My Lord and my Odd!

III. The sufficiency of the foundation. No foundation is laid, if this be omitted; and if this be laid, all the doctrines of the gospel are brought into harmony. Is man a ruined creature? Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Is man enslaved and lost? Jesus Christ is made wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Conscience condemns, and the law aggravates the condemnation; but Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. How many have built their immortal hopes on this foundation, and not one of them has ever sunk! And I appeal to your own experience. Is not this the foundation which has supported, and succoured, and sustained you?

IV. The unity of the foundation. It is absolutely indivisible. In vain shall any man attempt to separate it. All the good works of the Christian are the fruits of his union to Christ, the foundation. All holy desires, good counsels, and just works, proceed from Him: and it is impossible to mix up anything human with that which is wholly Divine. (W. B. Collyer, D. D.)

The one foundation

There cannot be two of the kind, for–

1. God from all eternity has made His only-begotten Son to be the foundation. Of whom else is it written that verily He was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world?

2. It is Divine, and it is as impossible that there should be two foundations as that there should be two Gods.

3. Otherwise there must be two redemptions. There is–

I. No Church but what is built on Christ. Whatever community may call itself a Church, or even the Church, if it is not built upon Christ it is not a Church at all. A foundation is–

1. The first portion of a building; and so is Jesus first with His Church, for His people were chosen in Him (Eph 1:4).

2. The support of all, and there is no Church but that which derives all its support from Christ. Call the community a religious club if you like, but it is no Church–

(1) Where the atonement is denied or ignored.

(2) Which places its dependence for its present power and future progress anywhere but in Christ. If we depend upon the secular power, education, eloquence, prestige, or our own zeal and ardour, we are leaving the rock for the sand.

3. Has the shaping of the building, and the true Church forms itself upon Christ as its ground-plan and outline. His law is the law of the Church. All the decrees of councils, synods, &c., and all the ordinances of men, if they at all differ from the law of Christ, are treasonable insults to the majesty of King Jesus. Steadfast is that Church which carefully follows His guiding line, but that which departs from it has left the foundation, and therein ceased to be a Church.

4. Indispensable. You could do without certain windows, you might close a door, and remove parts of the roof, and still it might be a house, but you cannot have a house at all if you take away the foundation; and so you cannot have a Church if Christ be not the foundation. If any people find their joy in a teaching which casts the Lord Jesus into the background, they are not His Church. The Church is not formed–

(1) By the union of men with men. The best of men may form a league, for good and useful purposes, but they are not a Church unless Christ be the basis upon which they rest.

(2) By a mere union to a minister. The Church is not built on Paul, nor upon Apollos; we are not to be believers in Luther, Calvin, or Wesley, but in Christ.

(3) By the following of any particular form or rite.

II. No gospel but what is built on Jesus Christ. For–

1. There is but one Mediator, by whom God speaks words of grace. If, then, any man say, God hath spoken to me, and bidden me say other than what Christ has said, receive him not.

2. The true gospel has Christs Divine person as its glory, and there can be no gospel without this.

3. Christ is the essence of the gospel.

(1) If, then, you hear a gospel in which free-will, good works, or the forms and ceremonies, are set up as being fundamental things, it is not the good news from heaven.

(2) The teaching of doctrines is not the teaching of the gospel if those doctrines be taught apart from Christ. Pauls body of divinity was the life and death of that only embodied divinity, the Lord Jesus (1Co 15:1-5).

(3) Some preach experience, and experience is admirable when Christ is set forth in it; but if you take up an experimental vein of things, whether of human corruption or of human perfection, and Christ is put in the background, you are marring the gospel.

(4) So, too, with practice. By all means let us have practical preaching; but merely to denounce vice and to extol virtue is a mission fit enough for Socrates or Plato, but does not well beseem a minister of Christ. His example shames vice and encourages virtue.

III. No hope of salvation but that which is built upon Christ. Some think it must be well with them because their parents were excellent Christian people. But if this is your only hope you are lost, for Except a man be born again, &c. Ay, but, saith another, I had all the ceremonies of the Church performed upon me. Yes, but they cannot bear the weight of your soul. Ah, saith another, but I have diligently performed a great many good works. Abound in good works, but do not trust them. Human merit is a foundation of sand. But I have had spiritual feelings, says one. Yes, but there is nothing in feelings and excitements which can be a ground of hope. Why, says another, it has troubled me that I have not had these feelings. Do not let it trouble you, but go to Jesus Christ and rest in Him.

IV. No Christian but the man built on Jesus Christ. Here is a Christian, and of one thing in him I am sure: I cannot tell whether he is an Arminian or a Calvinist, but if he is a Christian he has no foundation but Christ. Every man to be a Christian must–

1. Rest his whole soul upon Christ as to eternal salvation.

2. Have Christ for his model.

3. Grow up in Christ, for the temple of God grows. Nor need we wonder, for it is a living temple. An ordinary, clumsy bit of work displays the mason and the carpenter, but perfect architecture looks as if it grew. But all our up-growing must come out of Christ.

4. Live for Christ. Christs glory must be the great object of his being. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The one foundation

St. Paul had described himself as a master-builder, whose office was the laying of foundations. The Corinthians thought any man could do that; the skill of the architect was shown in the building he raised upon it. A teacher who was fit for them could not be a mere teacher of elements. Those who only spoke of Jesus Christ and Him crucified might be very useful amongst barbarians. Men who had been used to hear the most various wisdom from Pagan professors, were prepared for the most advanced Christian instruction. This opinion probably was not confined to one of the sects into which their Church was divided. Those who called themselves after Apollos supposed that he had brought a lore with him from Alexandria which would fill up the imperfect outline that St. Paul had drawn. Those who used the name of Cephas thought that; circumcision would initiate into the highest privileges those who had been made novices by the rite of baptism. And the Pauline school will have indignantly disclaimed that their master preached a simple gospel. Had not he as much Rabbinical knowledge as Peter? Was not he better acquainted with Greek poets and philosophers than Apollos? Did he not make light of ceremonies to which they, in their infantine faith, still clung? Had he not been seeking for deep principles, while they were reverencing forms? The praise of seeking for principles, if it had been accompanied with no disparagement of his fellow-labourers, St. Paul would not have disclaimed. That was his aim; and therefore he was as much offended with the conceit of his admirers as of those who despised him. They, as well as the others, were missing that which was dearest to all three–that which they most cared to make the Church aware of, a foundation lying far beneath Paul and Cephas and Apollos, to a rock against which the gates of hell could not prevail. St. Paul, therefore, had to persuade these wise Corinthians that they were the stones of a glorious and Divine temple; that God was hewing and shaping them into their fit places in that temple; if they would know whereabouts they stood, they must give up disputing about the theories and opinions of this doctor or of that; they must ask, What holds us all together? This being the case, it was necessary for St. Paul to define more carefully than he did, when he was merely speaking of his relation to other teachers, in what sense he called himself a master-builder. He could not lay the foundation. All which teachers can do is to say, There it is. All which believers can do is to recognise it. That Christ, the Son of the Living God, of whom Cephas spoke in his great confession; that Word of God, whom Apollos and the Alexandrians declare to be the Teacher of all; that Jesus, the crucified, whom I have set forth in weakness and death; He it is on whom the edifice rests, by whom it alone consists. St. Pauls conversion cannot be described more accurately than by saying that it consisted in his awaking from ignorance of this foundation to a full, clear apprehension of it. He had thought that there was something of his own which be could stand upon; some wisdom, or righteousness, or exclusive privilege, appertaining to him. That belief made him hard, narrow, savage. But the righteousness and wisdom which became so truly his own when he had renounced his own, this was the foundation which he could tell the Corinthians was lying for them as much as for him, the foundation which they were denying and setting at nought by their Greek factions, as he had denied it through his Jewish pride. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

The one foundation

1. Every wise man should sometimes look at his foundations, and especially at the foundation on which he is building his eternity.

2. Perhaps the chief danger is of treating as foundations what are part of the superstructure. And therefore you should take it as a first principle that the foundation is nothing which you have laid, or can lay. Your faith, love, change of character, good works, have nothing in the world to do with the foundation. They may be evidences that there is a foundation, and may be a test of how firmly we are attached to it, but they are not the foundation itself.

3. What, then, may I ask, is at this moment the foundation of your hope, of your eternal life? You perhaps say, The love of God. But that is not all you want. Can you find your foundation in the justice, in the truth of God? Has net God said, The soul that sinneth, it shall die! And love can never cancel truth.

4. Is there, then, a foundation deeper and more sound than the love of God? Is there a foundation which shall reconcile and combine all the attributes of God? Yes. His love makes Him, as a Father, longing to forgive all His children, and His justice makes it to be unjust to punish what He has already punished in the Substitute. There, then, is safety.

5. But what has led me to that position of safety? Simply the act of believing, and as the Holy Spirit puts it into your heart to believe, we come to our conclusion that our foundation lies in the Trinity–Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are all united to us in Christ.

6. Do any object, It is too easy? The grandest things of the universe are always the simplest. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The souls foundation

Christ is the foundation of all–

I. Gospel doctrine.

1. All gospel doctrines centre in Christ.

2. All the gospel titles arc taken from Christ. From–

(1) His names.

(2) His perfections.

(3) His Word.

II. Evangelical preaching. The object on which every minister–

1. Directs the eye.

2. Delights to dwell, must be Christ.

III. Acceptance with God. Christ is–

1. The atonement for our sin.

2. Our only way to God.

3. The remover of sin away from us.

IV. Experimental knowledge. He is the foundation of both–

1. Theoretical; and–

2. Experimental, knowledge.

V. Holy practice. All our holiness is derived from Him. Application:

1. How destructive to the souls of men must those preachers be who lay other foundations than Christ.

2. Rejoice that the foundation of Christ is laid already.

3. Is Christ your foundation? (J. Sherman.)

The alone foundation

I. The foundation.

1. We justify the appellation here given, and the situation thus assigned to Christ by a reference to–

1. His precedency. The foundation stone of a building is that which is first laid. Christ is called the Ancient of Days. In this appointment we have the richest displays of the everlasting love and wisdom and power of Jehovah.

2. His strength and stability (Isa 28:16; 1Pe 2:6-7).

3. The strength which He imparts to His people. That which imparts stability to the superstructure is the foundation, and all the strength which the believer can boast he derives from Christ. It is by virtue of the union between believers, the lively stones, and Christ, the foundation, that the Church has, in all ages, been sustained amidst the storm.

II. The laying of this foundation.

1. When was it laid? Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were formed.

2. By whom was it laid? Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.

3. How is it yet laid?

(1) Officially (1Co 3:10) in the preaching of the gospel. Hence–

(a) The minister himself must have an experimental acquaintance with the truths he promulgates. How can he recommend to others a foundation he has never tested and proved to be secure?

(b) He must be endued with the Holy Ghost. He may himself be truly established on this foundation, but this is not sufficient to enable him to lay the same foundation in the heart and experience of others. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts!

(2) Personally. This consists in the response which your heart gives to the message which we bring.

III. The exclusiveness of this foundation.

1. Were we to attempt to lay any other among you, how direful the denunciation to which we were exposed (Gal 1:8-9)! Laying another foundation, we act as traitors to God, handle the Word of God deceitfully, and basely betray the best interests of those of whom we may receive oversight, professedly in the Lord (Act 20:28).

2. And as it is important that your ministers should continually bear this in mind, so it is no less important that you should carefully and habitually examine yourselves as to the ground on which you are resting your faith and hope. Remember, there is no other foundation needed, there is no other appointed. A Saviour! twas all that earth could want, twas all that heaven could give! (J. Gaskin, M. A.)

Christ, the only foundation

I. Under what view Jesus Christ is the foundation.

1. It is not His person merely, nor any views of His person abstractly, that constitute the foundation of which Paul speaks.

2. In attending to the subject before us, it is important to inquire who was Jesus Christ? This inquiry the New Testament fully answers. Not because He is God, but because He is the Christ, Jesus is the foundation.

3. It may be asked, Are we then to build our faith and hope upon a mere man? By no means. As it is not as God, neither is it merely as man, that Jesus is the foundation; but as the Christ, the Divinely commissioned messenger of God.

4. That it is as the Christ, as a Divinely commissioned person, Jesus is the foundation, appears from the plain declarations of the New Testament (Mat 16:13-18; Rom 10:9; 1Jn 5:1).

5. Christians are to build on the foundation of what Jesus revealed and taught. We can build upon Jesus Christ, or upon tits mission, only so far as we build upon the truth and grace of God which came by Him.

6. But is not the death of Christ, as a satisfaction for sins, the true foundation? However important the death of Christ may be, it is not the foundation; for when Peter confessed the truth which Jesus declared to be the rock on which He would build His Church, He did not know that it would be necessary the Messiah should die.

II. How God hath laid this foundation.

1. God laid Him as the foundation in His eternal purpose and counsel.

2. God laid this foundation in His ancient promises and declarations.

3. God laid this foundation by actually raising up Jesus as a teacher and Saviour, by giving Him His Divine mission, and all the qualifications necessary to execute it.

4. This foundation was firmly established by the miracles which God wrought by and in behalf of His Son Jesus, and by the apostles in confirmation of their testimony concerning Him.

5. By raising Him from the dead and exalting Him to glory.

6. In the ministry of the apostles God placed Jesus Christ before Jews and Genthes, before the whole world, as the foundation on which mercy is built and salvation prepared before the face of all people, on which He will establish the habitation of holiness, that all the earth may be filled with His glory.

7. This foundation was fixed in its place by all the Divine perfections, and hath remained unmoved through all succeeding ages, though exposed to hosts of assailants who sought to remove it.

III. Of what Jesus Christ is the foundation.

1. Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christian faith. What He taught, His disciples are required to receive; but nothing else ought to be made an article of faith.

2. He is the foundation of Christian privileges.

3. He is the foundation of Christian redemption. His gospel and resurrection are the only ground of an assured hope of redemption from death and the grave.

4. He is the foundation of evangelical righteousness. He hath furnished the principles and motives which will produce it: and no other principles but those contained in the gospel, nor any weaker motives, can produce true evangelical righteousness.

5. He is the foundation of our hope.

6. God hath laid in His Son Jesus the foundation of universal happiness.

IV. Let every man take heed how he buildeth upon this foundation.

1. Take heed how and what doctrines you build upon Jesus Christ: that they be not contrary to reason; for to reason, He and His apostles appealed; that they be not inconsistent with the character and perfections of God as plainly revealed in the Scriptures; that they clash not with those plain facts and declarations of the New Testament which compel universal assent.

2. Take heed in what spirit you build upon Christ. You can neither build doctrines nor anything else aright upon Christ, any further than you do it in His disposition in a spirit of seriousness and piety, of meekness and humility, of purity and love.

3. Take heed what life and conduct you build upon this foundation; that it be such as becometh the gospel of Christ.

4. Take heed how you build upon this foundation, because your all is depending; consequences of the utmost moment are involved. A day of fiery trial will come. Try your own work of what sort it is. (J. Wright.)

Jesus Christ the foundation

I. Jesus Christ as the foundation of the Church.

II. Some peculiarities characterising this foundation.

1. It is notable for its strength (Psa 31:2-3).

2. It is remarkable for its suitability (1Co 1:30).

3. It is renowned for its perpetuity (Heb 13:7-8).

III. The folly of attempting to lay any other foundation. The way wherein other persons attempt to lay unjustifiable foundations are–

1. By relying on the directions of carnal reason (1Co 2:5).

2. By placing affiance in our own righteousness (Rom 2:5).

3. By trusting to Gods mercy without regarding the Saviours merits (1Jn 5:10).

4. This folly appears from the sufficiency of the foundation laid (Heb 7:25).

5. It is a reflection on Jehovahs wisdom and goodness (Rev 7:12).

6. It involves the soul in remediless woe, to despise Christ (Act 4:12).

This foundation then is–

1. Invaluable.

2. Necessary.

3. Most costly.

4. And eternally saving. (T. B. Baker.)

The gospel the only foundation of religious and moral dut

y:–

I. Jesus Christ is the foundation on which we are to build, inasmuch as it is from Him alone that we procure a knowledge of our duty. Look to the opinions and practices of man not blessed with the light of revelation, and you will perceive how imperfect is the knowledge of duty possessed by the natural man. Not such are the instructions as to the duty of man which are vouchsafed us by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The lives of professors must correspond with Christs commandments, that the building may be worthy of the foundation!

II. Other foundation can no man lay than Jesus Christ, because by Him alone are we instructed in the right principle on which our duty is to be performed. A sense of affectionate gratitude to God is the principle on which the whole duty of a Christian is established. This is the foundation of His religion: this is no less the foundation of His morality. Can any principle be so firm? can any be so pure? Honour may dazzle, custom may mislead, expediency may perplex us, and neither honour, nor custom, nor expediency will at all times support us in the discharge of our duty: but his feet are set upon a rock, whose goings are ordered by a desire of doing the will of a perfect and unchangeable, of an infinitely wise and holy Being. Again, unlike the principles of the world in another important respect, what motive of human conduct can be so pure as a grateful affection towards God? God is love. And human nature is never more exalted and improved than when it partakes most largely of the quality which is identified with God, when with the most devout affection we love Him, because He first loved us.

III. Jesus Christ is the only foundation on which we can build, because, as we are indebted to Him for the knowledge both of our duty and of the principle on which it is to be done, so also we derive from Him the power of doing it.

IV. Jesus Christ is the only foundation on which we can build, inasmuch as it is He who renders our services acceptable to Almighty God

V. Christ Jesus then being the foundation, the only foundation on which we are to build, let us inquire whether we build upon Him in the several particulars that have been now passing under our view.

1. Is our practice regulated by that perfect law of religious and moral duty which Christ hath set before us in the gospel? Do we submit ourselves–our souls and bodies–our thoughts, words, and deeds–to the Christian commandments? Do we yield to their authority an unreserved, an unqualified, an universal obedience?

2. What is the principle which we choose as our actuating motive? Is it love for our heavenly Father?

3. In the execution of our duty, on what foundation do we build our hopes that we shall be able to perform it? Do we rely upon our own imaginary strength to support us in the hour of trial, or do we humbly depend upon the Divine grace?

4. After all that by the grace of God we have been enabled to do, on what foundation do we rest our hopes that our services will be accepted by God? Is it upon any value which those services possess of themselves, or, renouncing all claim to merit on our own parts, do we trust our cause to the perfect righteousness of Christ? (Bp. Mant.)

The sure foundation

I. The foundation. In building, it is essential to begin with a good, solid foundation. If we have not that, we may take ever so much pains afterwards, but our labour will be all in vain. Now, there are many false foundations. Our selection of ground that will give way under the weight of what we put upon it is quite unlimited. But there is only one true foundation. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. All that teachers can do is to say, There it is! All that believers can do is to recognise it. It is God Himself who has laid it there for us. Wheresoever else than the love of God in Christ we repose our chief confidence and affection, it wilt sooner or later repent us and shame us, either happily in time while we may yet have recourse to Him, or miserably when it is too late. It is on this present world, on its pleasures, its riches, its honours most men try to rear the fabric of their happiness; but this world and all we can have in it will slip from under our feet like the sand. But let us remember that it will not avail us that a foundation has been laid, or that it has been already pointed out to us, if we do not make choice of it and use it.

II. The superstructure, or what is built on the foundation. St. Paul knew that the foundation was most important, and that, save on the one sure foundation, no lasting building could be raised; but he knew also that the foundation was not the house, that the discovery of a good foundation does not dispense a man from the necessity of building his house. We must build. We must not only rest on Christ, and Christ alone, for salvation, but must also work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We must build, and to build is to labour. If we cannot build even the smallest cottage without the exertion of putting each stone in its proper place, still less can we, without exertion, build up our lives into temples of God. To do so is the grandest of all works, and for that very reason it is one which needs the most thought and trouble. It demands a constant putting in of what is solid and true, and a constant casting out of what is hollow and false. He who would build up his own self, his own mind, and heart and soul gradually into a perfect manhood, must see to it that every day, every hour contributes somewhat towards that result. Some accession of knowledge, of self-control, of practice of good, and conquest of evil. Six kinds of material for building are mentioned in the text, but they may be reduced to two–good materials and bad: those which will stand the fire, and those which will not. Gold, silver, precious stones–the fire will not burn these; wood, hay, stubble–it will burn these. The various good materials may be of very different degrees of goodness. The various bad materials are not equally bad. A house, not so very uncomfortable for a while, may be constructed of wood, but not even a tolerable hut can be made out of hay and stubble. Yet all are bad; for even wood, if fire come near it, will be speedily reduced to ashes. All this is perfectly applicable to our own lives. We may build with different degrees of diligence, and what we do day by day may be most unlike in a thousand respects; but all we build must have its source either in love to God and holiness, or to self and sin, and will either be approven or condemned. The very best of worldly lives will be found then as miserably insufficient as a house of wood, however well built, however commodious, however imposing without, to resist the fury of the flames; and, on the contrary, no life which has been prompted by love to Christ and a sincere endeavour to do the will of God, however far it may have fallen below what it ought to have been, will be proved by the fire to have been other than enduring and precious. Let us live, then, as nobly and sublimely as we can; but, oh, at least let us live sincerely and righteously.

III. The day which will try the building of each one of us. Every mans work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. The apostle, I think, refers here in part to any time of peculiar trial, any day of testing. There is many a day of this sort, and they often make strange revelations. Either adversity or prosperity, for instance, may serve to test the work of our lives, and both often find far more wood, hay, and stubble therein than either we or others suspected. Every day of sore affliction is a day of fiery revelation. A man is living altogether for this world, wholly engrossed with his farm or merchandise, so as to have no thought beyond that; but God lays him on a bed of sickness, brings him to the very verge of eternity, reminds him of his sins and of the condemnation which awaiteth sin, and, oh, how clearly he then sees that he has been living like a fool and judging like a fool, that this world which he thought so real and so important is a shadow and a vanity, while that other world, which he never thought of, is alone substantial and eternal;, that he has been preferring wood, hay, and stubble to gold, silver, and precious stones. It is, however, mainly to a greater and more terrible day than any of these that Paul refers; it is mainly to that awful day on which there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known–that day into the light and heat of which no work, however subtle, or obscure, will not be brought, so that its true character may be made manifest–that day which, as we are told by a prophet, will burn like an oven, so that not one wicked life, not even one bad feeling, or one base act, will pass successfully through it. Since there is this day coming, it surely well becomes us to habituate ourselves, to bring our conduct, to bring our most secret feelings to the test of that law by which they will then be judged, and, through the grace God never denies to those who sincerely seek it, conform ourselves to that law now as far as we can, that it may have the less to condemn in us then. (R. Flint, D. D.)

The foundations of life

I. The foundations include almost all that we call life, in a large view. The individual is like an apple-blossom at the top of some tall and spreading monarch of the orchard. The entire tree is to that flower a foundation, out of which the blossom unfolds. The flower cannot change its place, cannot develop into anything but an apple. Its destiny is bounded, its efforts limited to a very narrow place. It is mainly so with a man. He is a consummate flower on the tree of humanity. For his personal development all the foundation facts are inevitable and irrefragable. The physical, intellectual, and moral worlds he cannot alter by the breadth of a hair. He can only build upon them. A century of progress has tended to bewilder some minds into the hope of new foundations. To such men progress seems a thing of changing the bases of life, but it is nothing of the sort. It is simply and only the uncovering of eternal foundations, that we may build more broadly. The widened palaces of civilisation are wider, because we have found more of Gods unchangeable foundations. Every improvement, every application of an invention, is made possible by uncovering a little more of the unbreakable rock. Look at social and political changes in the same light. A vast number have been proposed in this century of ours. A few have succeeded, because they struck solid foundation. They rose upon the basal facts in the nature of man and his social and moral conditions. The dreams of idealists and utopians have come to naught, because they had no granite undergirding of eternal law. You might as well try to change the constituents, or their proportions, of water or air, as to attempt to vary by a scruple the moral order of the world. You might as well try to defeat gravitation as try to abolish one jot or tittle of any of the Divine order. Nearly everything is settled. It is ours to find out how it is settled, and to rear our house on that solid ground. We are on a foundation. Gods fire, Gods waves, Gods tempests, will always keep their steady ways: it is ours to make ourselves secure against the fire, the waves, the storm-wind. So is every moral law, every and unchangeable fact in our nature, every invincible barrier in our liberty. We must uncover this bed-rock if we would build securely.

II. All forms of unbelief resolve themselves into incredulity respecting fundamental law. Men are incredulous about law, because a merciful provision postpones the penalty. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the hearts of the children of men are fully set in them to do evil. Nature seems to the careless to be infinitely tolerant of law-breaking. Her process of punishment, like her processes of growth, are slow, and are so concealed that the children of men are snared as birds are snared. If every carelessly caught cold should kill, consumption would not reap its awful harvests. If one glass of liquor caused death, there could be no alcohol habit. In none of these cases is nature tolerant or indifferent; the penalty is delayed just as the maturity of a fruit is delayed, but it comes in the evil time. We sin by inches and die by inches, because we refuse to see the penalties of vice, gluttony, carelessness, or drunkenness. Because sentence is not executed speedily, men build cities over the ruins wrought by earthquakes; and the sides of Vesuvius bloom with gardens and are green with olives, and villages sleep in the lava paths below; and on our streams towns sleep in fancied security, where floods work periodical desolation. Men caught in the net of their physical sins are apt to have the courage of confession. They admit that they ought to have believed in the fundamental law. But when snared in the evil nets of passion or vice, they are apt to regard their conviction and punishment as an accident or injustice. No man violates one of the Ten Commandments with impunity. The very act of sinning inflicts a punishment.

III. We must build upon the eternal foundations. We cannot build at our caprice the foundations themselves. But it is of much moment to remember that our own work becomes fundamental to further work. On Gods rock we lay our own foundations. The walls above are imperilled by the weakness of the walls below. Poor materials in the basement crack the roof overhead. The tall towers rock and reel because the undergirding is unsound. There are gifts of speech which Jack the support of the gifts of wisdom. There are capacities for action made useless for lack of capacities for reflection. There are mature manhoods which are inefficient because they are not built upon an industrious youth. There is an old age mourning over a life of neglected opportunities. There are souls that have repented of pleasant vices too late to recover in this world the joys of innocence.

IV. The individual man has more conspicuous need of building on what is noblest in his past. This personal past is characterised by what we call the law of habit. The thing once done tends to be done again. The good and the bad in the past have a common interest in this foundation. We cannot unmake the law. We are at each new step influenced by the path we have travelled. It has brought us here; it has set up a tendency to go right on. But our past has good to be selected from. If the immediate last steps were wrong, still our feet have known the other path. Some one may ask what I make of that doctrine of grace which lies so close to my text. I reply that grace is as much and as fully a foundation under moral life as gravitation is a foundation of physical life. We do the men of our generation infinite damage when we speak of grace as though it were a matter of Divine caprice. God helps men who seek His help as truly as He helps men who sow and reap. There is no wait of more contingency in the one case than in the other. Grace is the inspiring name for the Divine co-operation with man.

V. To suggest the importance of making our noblest past the material for building our future, let me call your attention to our present business. In short, we can build. Our building is on Gods land and up towards His skies. All that distinguishes our personality comes out of personal aspiration and endeavour. One mans life is a filthy hut, another is a stately palace. The bed-rock below every fixed fact of material or season is the same for both. The builders have made the enormous difference in the results. (J. Wheeler, D. D.)

The Christian foundation

Christ is the foundation of–

I. Christian doctrine.

1. If it be of man we reason, of his sinfulness, his corruption, his mortality; even here shall our foundation be laid in Jesus Christ. For in His Word is our fall most plainly set down, and by the necessity of His sacrifice is the enormity of our guilt most plainly proved. How deep must be that sinfulness which no less a sacrifice than one so precious could atone for!

2. If it is of God we speak, of His nature, His attributes, His dealings with mankind; here must our foundation still be Christ Jesus (Joh 1:18).

II. Human duty. If we consider what line of conduct men ought to pursue, as most tending to their own happiness, either on earth or in heaven; the same reference is made to the will and grace of Christ. In the gospel only can we find any sufficient rule of excellence. There only can we learn how to become pure in heart, lowly, meek, kind, and charitable. There only are we taught sufficient motives for doing what we ought to do, or avoiding what we ought to avoid.

III. Eternal hope. Without His revelation and His merits how dark and dreadful had our future been. Or if aught we could suspect of any further existence, it was an apprehension of punishment. But in the gospel of Christ life and immortality are brought to light.

IV. Church ordinances. If hither you resort to pray remember it is because Christ is in the midst of you (Mat 18:20). If here you offer praise, it must be above all for the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ. If hither you bring your children to be baptized, it is because Jesus Christ ordained this holy rite (see Mat 28:19). If hither your dead are borne to burial, it is because Christ is the resurrection and the life (Joh 4:25). And here also should you apply this rule to the celebration of those holy mysteries, in which Christ is Himself set forth before us, His very body and blood received through faith, and made effectual to the strengthening and refreshing of the soul. (C. Girdlestone, M. A.)

Christ the foundation

I. The properties of Christ as a foundation.

1. He is a laid foundation (Isa 28:16). Christ did not take upon Himself this honour. He that could best tell what would best serve pitched upon His own Son for that purpose.

2. A low foundation. Foundations are wont to be laid low, the lower the surer. So the Lord Jesus (Php 2:6-9). There were several steps of His humiliation.

(1) Into the human nature.

(2) Into subjection under the laws.

(3) Into poverty and persecution, contempt and contradiction.

(4) To death itself.

(5) To the grave.

3. He is a foundation of stone (Isa 28:16). A stone is the fittest thing for foundation, because it is hard and firm, and yet easily hewn. Now Christ is a rock (1Co 10:4).

4. He is a foundation out of sight. All foundations are so. Christ is out of sight, not below, as He once was, but above, in glory.

(1) His person is out of sight, yet we love Him (1Pe 1:8).

(2) His presence is with us everywhere, especially in His ordinances, but in an invisible way (Mat 18:20; Mat 28:20).

(3) His proceedings are invisible–those of His grace within; of His providence without (Psa 77:1-20, ult.).

5. He is a precious foundation (Isa 28:16). Though all stones in their place be useful, yet they are not all precious stones. Few buildings are built upon precious stones, but the Church is. Christ is precious–

(1) In Himself. The chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.

(2) In the account and esteem of His disciples. To others He is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence (1Pe 2:7).

6. He is a permanent foundation (Isa 26:4)–the rock of ages, from everlasting to everlasting. The saints have been building on Him from the beginning, and will build on Him to the end of time. He is the same yesterday, &c. His righteousness, His promises are unchangeable.

7. He is an elect, or chosen foundation (Isa 28:16; Isa 42:1).

8. He is an experienced or tried foundation. He was tried–

(1) By God, who laid upon Him the iniquities of us all.

(2) By men and devils, who did their best against Him, bus all to no purpose.

(3) By the saints, who have had occasion to make use of Him, and He has never failed them.

II. Our duty in reference to this foundation.

1. To believe all this concerning Him.

2. To see our need of Him. We have each of us a building to rear, and what foundation have we? None in ourselves.

3. To renounce all other foundations. They are but sand (Mat 7:24).

4. To repair to Him. In the way of faithful and fervent prayer tell Him you are sensible of your need of Him, and that you are undone without Him.

5. To build upon Him.

(1) In the great business of justification.

(2) In all our perils and dangers (Psa 46:1; Psa 62:1; Psa 26:2).

6. To beware what we build upon this foundation, in opinion and in practice (1Co 3:12-15). If we build loose, careless walking, our hopes built will be accordingly wood, hay, stubble, &c. (Philip Henry.)

Christ the foundation

When the immense stone piers of the East River bridge were begun, some years ago, the builders did not attempt to manufacture a foundation. They simply dug down through the mud and sand, and found the solid bed rock, which the Almighty Creator had laid thousands of years ago. It is a wretched mistake to suppose that you need to construct a foundation. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Your own merits, however, cemented by good resolutions, will no more answer for a solid base than would a cartload of bricks as the substratum of yonder stupendous bridge. God has provided for you a corner-stone already. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Christ the only foundation

I. Of the Christian Church. It was already built upon Him as its historical foundation. He was the reason and account of its existence, so that if He had not lived and died, its existence, as Paul found it, would have been inexplicable. Some hold that Paul, not Christ, was the founder of Christendom–a theory he by anticipation contradicted. Was Paul crucified for you? &c. If the Church is built on she labours of apostles, apostles themselves rested on the Chief Corner Stone.

II. Of Christian thought and life.

1. Christ Himself is the only foundation on which the soul can build, and not merely–

(1) Doctrines abort Him. Not that Scripture texts, or the creeds are to be disparaged. We prize both for His sake but not Him for theirs, and to rest upon them as distinct from Him would be like building on a measuring rule instead of on the granite of which it has given us the dimensions.

(2) Feelings about or towards Him. These are great aids to devotion; yet what so fugitive and unreliable. And after all they only point to Christ; their root is in ourselves, and we cannot supply the foundation stone out of the exhausted quarries of unrenewed human nature.

(3) His work. For this can only be appreciated in the light of His person. His death is at best heroic self-devotion, if it be so much as that, unless His person is superhuman; and no more reliance can be placed upon it than upon the death of Socrates.

(4) His teaching. For the persistent drift of this is to centre thought, love, adoration on Himself. Relatively to Himself, it is part of the superstructure. His disciples learnt devotion to His person through listening to His words; we believe His words because we know whose words they are.

(5) His sacraments. These are only picturesque unrealities, unless He who warrants them lives and is mighty. Apart from Him they have no more validity than our armorial bearing or a rosette.

(6) His example. Take only the pattern of humility (Php 2:1-30.). If He is only the Son of Mary His condescension is but one acceptance of natural circumstances. His example in this and in other respects is only a power on Pauls hypothesis.

2. In modern times an effort has been made to put His power in the shade, as if it did not affect the essence of the gospel. What Christ was, or is, men say cannot matter if we profit by His teaching and example. And that is true, if Christ was merely man. And a high-minded, disinterested man, after doing his best for his fellow-creatures, will withdraw as far as possible from their notice, But we know that Christ imposed His person, and not merely His maxims upon the thought and heart of the world, and this departure from the ordinary instinct of high human goodness must have depended on the fact that such a course was necessary. It implies that Christs person was in His own deliberate estimate of more importance than His teaching or philanthropy. But all is sufficiently explained, if we believe with Paul that Christ is God. Otherwise to make Him the foundation of the souls life would be to substitute a creature for the Creator. A purely human Christ might be the architect, and even the scaffolding of the spiritual temple; He could not be its own foundation. (Canon Liddon.)

Christ the only foundation

I. The nature of this foundation. It is to the atonement, principally, that the apostle refers.

1. It was prepared from eternity.

2. It was made known by revelation.

3. It was finally laid at the death of Christ.

II. Its peculiarity. Christ is the only foundation–

1. That God has appointed.

2. That the Scriptures will warrant.

3. That the righteous have in every age relied upon.

III. The advantages of trusting on it.

1. It promotes the glory of God.

2. It produces evangelical obedience.

3. It secures safety, honour, and happiness.

(1) In the season of adversity.

(2) In the hour of dissolution.

(3) In the day of judgment.

Conclusion: Let us–

1. Seek to obtain correct views of our true condition as sinners in the sight of God.

2. Beware of building on any false foundation.

3. Allow nothing to move us from this blessed hope. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

Christ the sure foundation of

1. The Church.

2. The Christian congregation.

3. The Christian life.

4. The sinners hope.

5. The hope of men. (W. F. Stevenson, D. D.)

Christ the strong foundation

I. The foundation is that from which everything springs, while itself bears all the weight. So from Christ all that is beautiful in the whole structure of the Church starts; and back to Him every part throws its heft and burden.

1. Christ was the foundation of the material world. For His sake, chiefly, this world was made–to be the scene of the display of His exceeding power and love to the glory of the Father (Pro 8:23-31).

2. So that when this world fell to ruin, there was the eternal Son of God ready to be the beginning of a new and better creation. As the promised Messiah, at the gate of Eden, He stayed the hand of universal death; and this earth and everything that is in it lived on, for He was before all things, and by Him all things consist, i.e., hold together.

3. After that, all along, underlying the whole Jewish dispensation, there was that expected One, the foundation a thought of every Jew till, in due time, He came. And the cradle of Bethlehem was the foundation of a throne before which every throne shall crumble into dust–of a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

4. Of this kingdom of grace and glory the threefold fundamental principal is–

(1) The person of Christ, that He is God and man–man to constitute Him a representative; God to give efficacy to the representation.

(2) The work of Christ–that He paid the debt of the whole world, and wrought a righteousness which can make the whole world good in a holy Fathers sight.

(3) The glory of Christ–that He is occupying heaven for us, and there exercises all regal functions for His peoples sake.

II. Foundation presupposes superstructure. And with the superstructure you have to do. And the height of the superstructure will be according to the depth of the strength of the foundation.

1. The foundation of all prayer is the Christ that is in it. Realise that your prayer is made prevalent by His intercession, that whatever you ask in the name of Christ shall be done.

2. Works are good and acceptable to God just according as they proceed from love–the love of God. But you cannot love God till you are in Christ, Good works are sweet evidences; the pinnacles and the decorations of heavenly architecture; but no foundation.

3. Is there any one in this church who has not peace? It is because Christ is not in His proper place. He is not laid deep enough in that poor heart of yours. Nothing else can bear the weight of that sin of yours. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The true foundation of character

I. There is as analogy between the formation of character and the erection of a building.

1. In the variety of its materials. Moral character is built up by impressions, the emotions, thoughts, volitions; by all, in fact, that in any way affects us.

2. In the unity of its design. Every building, however varied its materials, is formed on some plan. The master-purpose of the soul, whatever it may be, gives unity to the whole.

3. In the function it fulfils. Buildings are generally residences of some kind or other. The soul lives in the character. In some cases the home is the mere stye of the animal, or the shop of the barterer, or the prison of the guilty, or the temple of the saint.

II. Christ is the only foundation of a true character. There are sometimes splendid edifices and poor foundations, and the reverse. All characters are based upon some one idea.

1. Some on the sensual idea. Such as that on which the prodigal son started; such as that on which Dives built his all. Millions now do the same. What shall we eat, what shall we drink? is the grand inquiry.

2. Some on the secular idea. On this Judas, the young lawyer, and Demas built; and on this thousands build now.

3. Some on the ambitious idea. Absalom, Haman, Herod, are examples of this. Such, too, are the Alexanders and Napoleons of general history.

4. Some on the Christian idea. Supreme sympathy with God, and this requires Christ for its existence. Christ is its foundation, for He does the two things to generate this sympathy. He–

(1) Demonstrates to man the propitiableness of God.

(2) Reveals to man the moral loveliness of God. Thus He is the true foundation.

III. To Christ as a foundation men bring worthless as well as valuable materials. There are edifices–

1. Partially formed of wood, hay, stubble.

(1) The mere creedal character is worthless. There are those whose Christianity is a mere thing of idea.

(2) Mere sentimental character is worthless. There are those whose Christianity is a mere thing of frames and feelings.

(3) Mere ritualistic character is worthless. There are those whose Christianity is a mere matter of form. All these are things of no solidity, value, duration.

2. Entirely formed of valuable materials brought to Christ. They are formed of gold, silver, precious stones. The heart is in vital sympathy with Christ as the Atoner for sin, the Exemplar of holiness, the Saviour of the world. The profoundest thoughts, the strongest sympathies, the gold and silver of the soul, are connected with Christ.

IV. There is an era to dawn when all the edifices built on this foundation shall be tried. Individually, it is the day that dawns at the end of our mortal life. Universally, it is the day that dawns at the end of this worlds history. The fire of absolute justice and truth will burn to the centre of all souls, consuming all that is worthless.

1. This day will be injurious to those who have built on this foundation with worthless materials.

(1) They will suffer loss. There will be the loss of labour, of opportunity, of position.

(2) Though they suffer loss they may be saved. Their favourite theories and cherished hopes shall burn like wood and hay, yet they themselves may survive.

2. This day will he advantageous to those who have built on this foundation with right materials. (D. Thomas. D. D.)

Fundamental truths explained, and popular errors exposed

We have–

I. A striking figure. Christ is compared to a foundation. There are four ideas connected with Christ as a foundation.

1. Selection. A foundation stone is not taken at random–wisdom and care are required in the choice of it. The motto inscribed on this stone is, Chosen of God and precious. When any great building is about to be erected, it is customary for some person of eminence to lay the foundation stone. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone.

(1) How striking was the description which represents Him as a tried stone. He was tried in His humiliation, tried by the lapse of ages, by the malice of devils, by the opposition of His enemies, and in the experience of His friends.

2. Suitableness. The Divine and human natures which meet in Him render Him suitable for the work He undertook.

3. Strength. The Saviour has strength to sustain. He sustains millions who are now in glory, and multitudes who are on their way, and the whole universe cannot furnish one instance of an individual being confounded who reposed here. But there is strength to destroy (Dan 2:34-35; Mat 21:42-44).

4. Stability. This is well represented by a stone; yet, however durable, the elements have power over it. But time that doth all things else impair, has no power over the foundation of the Church. Eternity claims it as its own–it shall stand unshaken amidst the shock of judgment–and when all nature shall sink in ruins, verily the foundation of God standeth sure.

II. A solemn fact. Christ is the only foundation. The apostle plainly intimates that attempts would be made to lay other foundations. Let me take you to three spots where men have tried to build their hopes for eternity.

1. Carnal reason. I mean the reason of man set up in opposition to, and in defiance of revelation. We would not undervalue reason, nor condemn its use in religion, for religion itself is a reasonable service. In all the doctrines of Christianity there is nothing contrary to reason, though there is much that infinitely surpasses it. There must be some standard by which to guide our views and feelings in reference to the interests of the soul, the claim of God and the solemnities of eternity. Where shall we find such a standard? Pride of intellect has set up reason; the wisdom of God revelation; and to make the latter bow to the former would be as preposterous as to make the sun acknowledge his inferiority to the glimmering taper.

2. Self-righteousness. This error assumes a variety of forms all of which are fatal. Here is a benevolent individual who wishes well to all around him. The acts of his liberality we cannot but admire, but we deplore the principles by which he is prompted to do what he does; he prides himself on his generosity, and imagines that God will accept him, though the general tenor of his conduct is opposed to Christianity. Let him come to the temple of Christianity, and read on the stone which unites and sustains the whole–Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Let him enter the building, and there read for himself–Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, &c. Here is another individual strictly moral, a respectable and respected member of society, a good husband, a kind father, a generous master, and a sincere friend. Now all this is well and praiseworthy, so far as it goes, but all these excellent traits may be found in their fullest extent while the heart is estranged from God. The man prides himself on his morality, and is attempting to make of it a bridge over which he shall pass to heaven. But here is another individual who makes a considerable profession of religion, his creed is sound, his life regular, his attendance on the means of grace punctual, &c., but he knows nothing of the power of grace or the experience of religion. How many seek to make a ladder of their religious duties that shall reach to heaven!

3. The general goodness of God. Many wish to be saved, but in their own way. They will not comply with the terms proposed in the gospel–they would have salvation, and yet retain their sins–they desire heaven, not because they love holiness, but that they may escape hell. We must take it as a gospel axiom, that if the salvation of Christ is in the soul, the dominion of Christ must be set up in the heart. Conclusion: Let me seriously inquire whether I am building on this foundation. It was laid in the eternal counsels of the Sacred Three–in the fulness of time in the person, work, suffering, and sacrifice of Christ–and is now laid in the preaching of the gospel. (Ebenezer Temple.)

Christianity ultimate and absolute truth

1. What we know of the way of the world hitherto prepares us to believe that a great many things which are now serving their purpose will be superseded. And that we cannot see how, gives us no assurance that certain things shall not be got beyond. In travelling, there may be something beyond railways. In communication, no one can say that the telegraph is the ultimate wonder. And in all the arts and conveniences of life, the case is so too.

2. There is one thing, however, which will never be superseded. The world has seen various religions; but the truth, as it is in Jesus, is absolute and ultimate truth. We may have to learn, perhaps, that things which we think to be part of Christianity, are not, and to give them up as our fathers had. But, in the face of all possibilities, we turn to the comfortable assurance in the text. There is no Christ that is to be: the One Christ has come, once for all. Among the ultimate and unchangeable truths are–

I. The way in which each of us must be saved. A vital thing, which cannot go amid all coming changes, is salvation through the atonement of Christ. We are sure of nothing if we are not sure that Christ died for our sins. And no theory of the way of salvation but that which is familiar to us can bear being calmly looked at by any man who feels it his duty to accept the Word of God as decisive. We do not think that it is in any way profitable to push revealed doctrine into minute details; but we cannot regard it as other than vital part of that foundation besides which there never can be another, that Christ is a Saviour: that His sufferings were sacrificial, and borne for us: that by His obedience and death He reconciles us to God, satisfies Divine justice, and secures sanctification as well as forgiveness: that His atoning work is complete, and that its benefits are offered freely to all who will receive them.

II. The rule of duty and help in duty.

1. You are not more sure of your own existence than that the requirements of Christianity as to duty will never grow less and can never grow greater. You cannot conceive of anything beyond perfection. Nor can you recall anything that lies outside of whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, &c. And there is set before us for constraining example the life of One who was sinless in humanity, perfect in Godhead; and we are bidden to grow like Him.

2. Then, as for the help for all this there can be no change. As for the grace, guidance, vitality of the Holy Spirit–these, too, will be needed and are guaranteed to the end. Conclusion: There may be other things nearly associated with the scheme of Christian belief which will endure. Christian worship, surely, must always abide, though the accessories may greatly change. Surely there must be prayer, and praise; and even preaching must in some shape last. Till He come again, too, the sacramental commemoration of the Great Sacrifice, and the feeding upon it by faith, is appointed to continue. Yet it is rather doctrine than ritual that is pointed to in the text. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

Religion illustrated under the form of a building

I. The foundation. Christianity is threefold. Its doctrines are the walls which enclose and preserve the interior parts of the building, its duties are the beams and rafters which keep its several parts together, and are its strength and firmness. Its privileges are the furniture placed in this edifice. Now, Christ is undoubtedly the foundation of each.

1. As to doctrines, whether they concern our fall or our recovery, a state of grace here or of glory hereafter, certain it is, Christ is the foundation of them all–not only is He the centre in which all the lines of doctrine meet, but also the fountain from whence they flow. So is He also the one source of all spiritual illumination. From Him all the sacred penmen derived their instruction, and from Him we must receive the ability to understand what they have revealed. So that whoever would build up the walls of Christian doctrine must be careful to erect them on Christ, his Prophet.

2. But Christ is the foundation of Christian privileges, i.e., the blessings procured by Him for men, and bestowed upon all true believers, as the pardon of sin, the favour of God, adoption, the indwelling of His Spirit, the resurrection of the body, and everlasting life. Whosoever, therefore, would enjoy these blessings must build all his confidence and hope respecting them on Christ; and they who look for them in any other way build upon the sand.

3. The duties of Christianity can only be built on the same Rock of Ages. And here I refer to a right temper, as well as a regular behaviour; a pure heart, as well as a holy life. Now Christs laws enjoin all this, and His Spirit inspires it; from His love it springs, and to His glory it is directed. It derives all its value from His grace, and depends for acceptance upon His mediation.

II. Its superstructure (1Co 3:12). What a glorious temple must that be which is raised upon a solid rock with such costly, splendid, and durable materials as gold, silver, and precious stones I And what a glorious spiritual temple must that be which is built on the Rock of Ages; of no worse materials than faith, love, and good works!

1. We must build faith upon Christ, or we must build upon Him by faith. Is Christ a Teacher sent from God, He the High Priest of our profession, He our King? Then we must believe in Him, receiving His doctrines, relying on His promises, and subjecting our hearts and lives to Him.

2. This faith must be followed by love.

(1) The love of God, which, as a fruit of faith, must be built upon Christ, is not merely a high esteem of Him, nor a desire after Him as our chief good, but also a complacency and delight of soul in Him as our Father and our Friend, who, in and through Jesus Christ, is become our portion in time and eternity.

(2) And as this love is in union with the love of our neighbour which is a resemblance of Gods love to mankind.

3. With great propriety are good works compared to precious stones, whether we regard their real worth or apparent beauty. Valuable and costly in themselves, they shall adorn the crowns and beautify the robes of the followers of Jesus in that day when God shall amply reward even a cup of cold water given in the name of Christ. Real good works spring from living faith and the love of God shed abroad in the heart; they are done in obedience to the Divine will, and with a view to the glory of God, and hence, be they ever so insignificant as to the outward act, they are truly precious in His sight.

4. But, alas! many begin to build with gold, &c., but by and by build with no better materials than wood, &c. Others never make use of anything better than sapless, combustible wood; the best modes of worship and religious duties, where the Spirit of God is wanting, are no better than mere hay; and the best systems of doctrine, where the gospel does not come with power, are of no more use than dry straw.

III. The issue of all (1Co 3:13). Every mans work shall be made manifest (Ecc 12:14; Mat 10:26), for the day shall declare it.

1. The day of trial here will generally discover what character we possess, and if our religion is built up of nothing better than wood, &c., it will be consumed and vanish.

2. The day of death shall prove a mans faith and piety, as a furnace tries the metals, and those who are mere dross shall be burnt up by it.

3. The day of judgment (Mal 4:1; 2Pe 3:10). (J. Benson.)

Building for eternity

I. All Christian men build for eternity upon one and the same foundation (1Co 3:11).

1. Sin had laid the world in a state of ruin; and if another temple could be constructed it must have a foundation firmer and broader than that which fallen nature could furnish. Human sagacity might suggest penitence, reformation, suffering. But none of those, nor all united, could answer the purpose.

2. When the incompetency of the law had been demonstrated, God laid in Zion a foundation; and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. As Christ is the foundation of the universal temple of God, so is He also the foundation of each believer. It matters not in what clime they have fixed their dwelling, &c. In Christ they are one, and on Him, as their common support, they repose.

II. Christian men greatly differ in the materials which they use in the erection of the building.

1. Some build gold, silver, and precious stones. The superstructure which they rear is of a costly and glorious character. The materials are emblematical of preciousness, purity, solidity, and permanency. There are some characters formed of elements as pure and indestructible as the principles upon which they are reared.

2. There are others who build on the same foundation wood, hay, and stubble; materials which are perishable, corrupt, and comparatively worthless.

III. There will be a period in which these materials shall be revealed in their true nature, and tried by the severest test (1Co 3:13). The day referred to is clearly the day of judgment. Independent of revelation, we have many evidences confirmatory of this truth.

1. Analogy. Everything here tends to a final close. The universe itself is marching on towards dissolution.

2. The aspirations and the forebodings of humanity. The moral character of God. There must be another day in which that which is now wrong and imperfect shall be rectified and completed.

IV. The building constructed of pure materials will abide the test, and the builder be recompensed (1Co 3:14).

1. The work of the wise builder is indestructible. As it regards–

(1) Himself: his sentiments, feelings, spirit are in harmony with the laws of heaven.

(2) Others: the doctrines, &c., are right and Scriptural. As a necessary consequence, the fabric erected of such materials cannot but abide. Having been erected on the same principles which have the throne of the Eternal, their period of duration will be analogous.

2. The builder shall be rewarded. His reward will be a reward of–

(1) Grateful recollection.

(2) Inward satisfaction.

(3) Remunerative labour.

(4) Public approval.

(5) Divine recompense.

3. The reward shall be in proportion to the work done. Every man shall receive according to his own labour. Heaven will be what we make it on earth.

V. The building constructed of perishable materials shall be consumed–the builder sustain loss, but with difficulty saved (1Co 3:15). The very idea of erecting wood, hay, and stubble upon an everlasting foundation was highly imprudent. What could be more incongruous, or more indicative of misplaced labour? However, such a building cannot stand; the investigations of the last day are more than it can bear.

1. As a consequence he shall suffer loss–

(1) Of labour. All that he has done, with one exception, has been done in vain.

(2) Of inward satisfaction. He might have reared a durable building; but he wasted his time and energy in another way.

(3) Of hope. He expected his labour to be accepted by his Judge and rewarded accordingly. He is now stripped of all such anticipations.

(4) Of reward. A reward can never be given but in connection with service rendered. This loss will be everlasting in its effects; it shall be a detriment to him to all eternity.

2. He himself shall be saved. The groundwork abides upon which he has been erecting, and, in virtue of this, he is safe. (D. Evans.)

Life as a structure

I. A foundation laid.

1. The idea is the radical one that no one can begin to live rightly and well just as he is. Sin has touched and tainted the deepest things in us. We cannot even begin. And this is not only the Bible teaching, but the conviction of almost the whole world.

2. Immense numbers of men are busy in the vain attempt to lay a foundation of their own. And as builders drive in piles into the marshy ground, and throw in vast loads of earth and stones, making a foundation on which they rear their house to last for its century or two, so men in imagination carry out of themselves their good deeds, sufferings, penitence, recognitions of Divine mercy, &c., to lay down as a basis on which they may raise the structure of hope and happiness. Vain toils! The gulf is too deep and the materials have no real strength or worth.

3. God, looking down says, in condemnation, yet pity, Behold, I lay in Zion, &c. Jesus Christ, then, is the foundation. The needed work is done. It is finished. The gospel is a message, far more than an argument; an announcement of work done, rather than a discussion as to the way of doing it. On this we rest. The foundation of God standeth sure. We are safe, we are strong, if we build on that. There are many mysteries yet unsolved, but this is clear, that God has laid the foundation.

II. There is a building to be raised. A foundation without a building is a solecism.

1. After laying the foundation God tells us that we may build a house, and ought to build a temple. Wood was used for the posts and doors; hay, or dried grass mixed with mud, for the walls, and stubble or straw for the roof. These are never used for temples. The temples were built of precious stones, such as granite and marble, and they were adorned with gold and silver. God stands close by the foundation He has laid, waiting for the builders to come. Come, be a builder. Put your trust in Christ. Faith in Him is the first stone laid on the foundation, and without it no other can be there. A man may be, according to the human judgment, great, and good, and happy, but if he does not believe in Gods chosen foundation, his life is essentially defective, and must collapse in the end.

2. But the apostle is speaking to those who have begun, and in effect says, Having begun, go on. Build diligently, that you may have a completed structure–carefully, that it may be composed of the proper materials. There is a certain kind of Christian teaching and writing which condenses everything in Christian life and experience into faith: only believe. That is all. No, says the apostle, that is not all. Lay the first stone securely on the foundation which is laid, then add another, and another. Act by act, day after day, let the temple grow. In the compass of three verses four several times the apostle mentions a mans work. Lay the precious stones one upon another. Bring in the gold and silver for the enrichment and adorning of this living temple.

(1) And beware lest unwittingly you should be using the wood and the hay and the stubble, which must perish at last. A man, e.g., comes to Christ, he yields to Him, is pardoned, renewed, and rejoices for a while in his complete salvation. For years he keeps his place and builds on. But what is his building? Wood, hay, stubble, low views, superficial opinions, evil tempers, worldly habits–just such things as irreligious men are building into their lives. Then let us be careful to build with the right materials, and all the more because the wrong ones are so rife and so near. Errors of every kind, but especially religious errors, are very abundant, some of them looking quite like truth. We shall build them up into the system of our faith ere ever we are aware; if we do not give earnest heed. Vices also abound, and some of them are so fair. And a multitude of things are around us which cannot be called either errors or vices, which yet will make very indifferent materials–ways of thinking, speaking, acting; the spirit of the place.

(2) But let no man be discouraged, as though there were but little chance of being able to build up his life without large intermixture of such inferior stuff. Good materials are available–truth, virtue, strength, wisdom and love. If we ask them they will be given to us. God has taken care for this. He has filled His Book with truth. He has filled His providence with moral helps. If we diligently study the one and live faithfully amid the scenes of the other, He will fill us with His grace and salvation day by day, so that we shall grow unto an holy temple in the Lord.

III. There is a time given to finish the work. And when the limit of that time shall come, not one stone more can be laid. I must work the work of Him that sent me while it is day, &c. And no man can tell when the night shall come. Look at the tombstones in a graveyard. You will see every age recorded there, and remember, as you read, that every name recorded is the name of a builder who, in the day given to him, began and finished a building that will be tried by fire.

1. Here is a stone that tells that an infant was born, and after wrestling with mortality but for a few days, died and was buried. But that little history was the building of a temple, and when it was finished the angels carried it away.

2. Here is a stone that marks the resting-place of a little worker. Mere shapings and scantlings of work there were–a little serious thought, a little faith and love, some tiny steps of following after the great Master: nothing, as some would say, to make a finished life. You are mistaken. That little workman will never need to be ashamed. He has finished a temple life.

3. This is a maidens name. She was looking to the bridal-day, and death came unbidden, but not unwelcome, for He led her up to the higher espousals of heaven. Father, mother, lover have written on the stone that her sun went down while it was yet day. But the angels have written eventide; the Saviour has written finished.

4. Here lies a merchant who was in the full stretch of his powers. His name was a synonym for truth and honour, and all around are the beginnings he had made. Nothing was finished. Yes, all is finished, and he lies here.

5. And now we come to the grave of the old, old pilgrim. The shock of corn seemed more than ripe. He was blind, deaf, in pain, helpless. Would it not have been better that he had gone some years sooner? No, no. It was the right time. He needed all his days and all his experiences to finish the temple.

IV. The fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. Our day is now. The day of the Lord is coming. Then our day will begin once more beyond, Go have no more ending. But there must be judgment before glory. The apostle brings out this idea with truthful and unsparing severity. Again, and again, and again he mentions the fire! and how shall I dare try, with my misleading instincts, to quench Gods holy fires? They will burn all the same, and be the more consuming the less men expect them.

1. God resolves to take us through that last ordeal, sparing nothing that will burn, and bringing us out, if need be, with nothing left to us of all our sore labour under the sun, that we ourselves may be saved–saved so as by fire. And which is best? Our poor human shrinking and longing, or Gods holy will? For would you have the wood, the hay, the stubble, yonder as well as here–calcined and hardened and preserved by those fires which were too feeble to consume them? Better stand at last in his full and complete salvation, than in any respect or for any length of time come short of it. Day of God! Day of Christ Jesus our Lord, with awful yet with loving desire we would look on to thee! The Lord grant to us that we (whatever may come of many of our works), that we may find mercy of the Lord on that day.

2. But let us, on the other hand, remember that nothing in us, which is truly Christian, can fall in those flames at last. And a little of these things is just as indestructible as much. Good is gold always, and will pass through any fires. If it is mingled with alloy the fire will be its salvation. And you do not know how the little services you are rendering will expand into nobleness, when the spirit and principle of them are known and declared. Not one precious stone which you put into your life will ever crumble, not one particle of gold or silver can perish. He whom you serve will gather up all the fragments so that nothing shall be lost. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

On the Rock

One day a female friend called on the late Rev. William Evans, a pious minister in England, and asked how he felt himself. I am weakness itself, he replied; but I am on the Rock. I do not experience those transports which some have expressed in the view of death; but my dependence is on the mercy of God in Christ. Here my religion began, and here it must end.

A false foundation

One was once brought, in the course of providence, into the company of a young lady who was just recovering from a dangerous illness. Speaking of her illness, among other things, she said, At one time I sent for my honoured parents, and beloved brothers and sisters, and took, as I thought, my last farewell of them. Both the physicians had given me up, and my friends expected to see me no more. We seldom meet with a person, said the other, who has been so near to death as you have been. Pray tell me what were your feelings when you were on the verge of eternity. I was happy, she replied. And will you please to tell me what were your prospects? I hoped to go to heaven, of course. Had you no doubts, no fears, no suspicions? None. Perhaps almost all hope to go to heaven; but I fear, said the young man, there are many who have no good foundation for their hope: pray, on what was your hope founded? Founded! she replied: why, I have never injured any person, and I had endeavoured to do all the good in my power. Was not this sufficient? It is a delightful reflection, said the student, that you have never injured any person, and it is still more delightful to think that you have done all the good in your power; but this is a poor foundation for a sinner to rest upon. Was this the foundation of your hope? She seemed quite astonished at the question, and eagerly inquired, Was not this sufficient? The student did not give a direct answer; but observed, I am very thankful that you did not die. What! do you think I should not have gone to heaven? I am sure you could not in the way you mentioned. Do you perceive that, according to your plan, you were going to heaven without Christ?–a thing which no sinner has done since Adam fell, and which no sinner will be able to do while the world stands. Be very thankful, dear Miss, that you did not go out of life resting on this delusive foundation: for had you done so, the moment that you entered eternity, it would have given way, and you would have fallen through it into the bottomless pit. God carried home this word to her soul: light broke in upon her mind. From that day a decided change took place in the young ladys views; and a corresponding holiness, and love, and zeal, and usefulness, have adorned her life. (Scripture Doctrines Illustrated.)

Admonitions to ministers and congregations

I. To ministers (verse 11).

1. Ministers are to preach as the foundation–Christ. Recollect what Pauls own Christianity was: a few facts respecting his Redeemers life, a few of his Masters precepts out of which he educed all Christian principles, and on which he built all that noble superstructure–his Epistles. Remember how he sums all up (Php 3:10). His life, death, and resurrection, working daily in us, being made manifest in our body. Christianity is Christ; understand Him, breathe His spirit, comprehend His mind; Christianity is a life, a spirit. Let self die with Christ, and with Him rise to a life of holiness, and then you need not care what discussions may arise; you stand upon a rock.

2. On this foundation we are to build the superstructure. Christianity is a few living pregnant principles, and on these you may construct various buildings. Christianity is capable of endless application to different circumstances, ages and intellects. Now in the words of verse 12, observe that there are not six kinds of superstructure, but two: gold, silver and precious stones, the materials of the temple; wood, hay and stubble, of a cottage; but in these buildings the materials of each are of various degrees of excellence, and the latter, good, bad and indifferent. Now what do these symbolise? Perhaps doctrines or systems; but more probably persons. Some of straw, utterly worthless; some of silver, sound, good, but not brilliant men; some of gold, characters true to the very centre; some of precious stones, men in whom gifts are so richly mingled with useful qualities that they are as jewels in the Redeemers crown. And such was the author of this Epistle.

3. Now there follows from all this the doctrine of the rewardableness of work. All were one, on the one foundation; yet they were not one, in such a sense that all their work was equally valuable, for, every man shall receive his own reward according to his labour. Therefore, Christian men, work on–your work is not in vain. A cup of cold water, given in the name of a disciple, shall not lose its reward.

4. There is also here a distinction between the truth of work and its sincerity. In that day nothing shall stand but what is true; but the sincere worker, even of untrue work, shall be saved (verse 15). Sincerity shall save him in that day, but it cannot accredit his work. But what is this day? Generally speaking, time; more particularly the trial day, which every advent is, and especially the last. Nothing gilded or varnished will remain; for just as fire burns straw so must all that is not based on the truth perish. Then elaborate systems of theology shall be tried and found worthless. Then many a Church order, elaborately contrived, shall be found something unnecessarily added to the foundation, and overlying it. And then many a minister, who has prided himself on the number of his listeners, will be stripped of his vain-glory, if that which seems to be souls won for God, turns out to be only hearts won for self.

II. To congregations.

1. A warning against all ministers who should so teach as to split the Church into divisions (verse 21).

2. A warning against sectarianism, on the ground of Christian liberty (verse 21). Man enters this world, finding himself in the midst of mighty forces of which he seems the sport and prey. But soon Christianity reveals to him Gods will, which makes these things co-operate for his good. And so he learns his own free-will, and uses them as the sailor does the winds, which as he uses them become his enemies or his friends. Then it is that he is emancipated from the iron bondage to circumstances: then all things are his–this marvellous life, so full of endless meaning, so pregnant with infinite opportunities. Still more death, which seems to come like a tyrant, to lead hint to higher life. Paul is his, to teach him freedom. Apollos his, to animate him with his eloquence. Cephas his, to fire him with his courage. Every author his, to impart to him his treasures.

3. St. Paul refers all this to the universal law of sacrifice: all things are ours on this condition–that we are Christs. The law which made Christ Gods has made us Christs. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Christ the only foundation

First, therefore, He is to be laid down as the only foundation in respect of knowledge and instruction. Secondly, we must preach Christ the foundation of all strength and power, from whom we receive all ability to do anything that is good. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me (Php 4:3). Thirdly, Christ is preached as a foundation when He is exalted in our ministry to be the Head of the Church and He that governeth all things. Fourthly, Christ is to be set up the only foundation in respect of mediation and intercession with God. Fifthly, from this floweth another necessary way of preaching Christ a foundation, viz. of acceptation of our persons and duties. Sixthly, Christ is to be preached as the foundation of all fulness for all our necessities and spiritual wants. Two or three particulars more we are to instance in by which it may appear in what Christ is laid a foundation. Seventhly, He is to be preached as the Fountain of all the happiness, joy, and spiritual content the godly hearer can have. Eighthly, Christ is to be preached as the Person with whom we are to close in all ordinances. Lastly, we are to preach Christ, not only as the foundation of our approaches to God, but of all Gods gracious actions and visitations to us. In the next place let us consider the reasons why we ministers are to lay no other foundation but Christ: to make Him all in all. First, it is the main end and scope of the Scriptures only to exalt Christ, and the end of the ministry should be the same with the end of the Scriptures. Secondly, as the Scripture, so Gods great purpose and counsel from all eternity was, to set up Christ and to have Him glorified. Thirdly, we must preach Christ the foundation, because in Him there is such a treasure of the riches of Gods grace and Gods love. Fourthly, therefore are we to exalt Christ in our ministry, to lay Him the foundation, because in heaven, though Christ will then lay down the exercise of His mediatory kingdom, yet the glory and honour must be given unto Him for ever. Fifthly, the necessity of preaching Christ the foundation ariseth from the ignorance of people who do grossly err about Christ both doctrinally and practically. Sixthly, the necessity appeareth because of the subtilty and enmity of Satan, who has continually set himself against Christ and His Church. Seventhly, we have the more need to exalt Christ because there is proneness in every man to trust to his own work. (A. Burgess.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. Other foundation can no man lay] I do not speak particularly concerning the foundation of this spiritual building; it can have no other foundation than Jesus Christ: there cannot be two opinions on this subject among the true apostles of our Lord. The only fear is, lest an improper use should be made of this heavenly doctrine; lest a bad superstructure should be raised on this foundation.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Can in this text doth not signify a mere natural power, but a rightful power: No man by any just right or authority can lay any other foundation, can preach any other doctrine of salvation, than that which I have already preached, which is the doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ.

Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, Act 4:12.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. (Isa 28:16;Act 4:12; Eph 2:20).

Formy warning (“takeheed,” c. 1Co 3:10) is asto the superstructure (“buildeth thereupon“), not asto the foundation: “For other foundation can noman lay, than that which has (already) been laid (by God) JesusChrist,” the person, not the mere abstract doctrine about Him,though the latter also is included Jesus, GOD-SAVIOUR;Christ, MESSIAH orANOINTED.

canA man cannot lay any other, since the only one recognized by God has beenalready laid.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For other foundation can no man lay,…. Men may attempt to lay other foundations than Christ, and build upon them, but to no purpose; they will be of no avail; all besides him are sandy foundations; such as fleshly privileges, a carnal descent, a religious education, an external profession of religion, a man’s own righteousness, and the absolute mercy of God; but men ought to lay no other, nor can they, that will be of any advantage to themselves or others:

than that which is laid; by Jehovah the Father, both in his eternal counsels and covenant, when he set forth and appointed Christ to be the Saviour and Redeemer of his people; and in the fulness of time, when he sent him forth under the same characters; and by the Spirit of God, when he reveals Christ to them, and forms him in them; and by the ministers of the Gospel, who jointly agree to lay him ministerially, as the foundation for souls to build their hope upon: hence he is called the “foundation of the apostles and prophets”, as here,

which is Jesus Christ; he is the foundation personally considered, as God-man and Mediator, on which the church, and every believer is built; he is the foundation of the covenant of grace, and of eternal salvation; of the faith and hope, peace, joy, and comfort of all the saints; and of the building of God, that house not made with hands, that city which has foundations, eternal glory in the other world; and he is the foundation, doctrinally considered; or the doctrines of his proper, deity, of his divine and eternal sonship, of his incarnation, of his Messiahship, of his obedience, sufferings, death, and resurrection from the dead, of justification by his righteousness, pardon by his blood, and atonement by his sacrifice, c. are fundamental ones: the Jews were wont to call the principal articles of their religion, , “foundations”: Maimondes has entitled one of his tracts, “the foundations of the law” but the doctrines respecting the person, offices, and grace of Christ, are the only foundation of the Gospel.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Spiritual Foundation.

A. D. 57.

      11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.   12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;   13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.   14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.   15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

      Here the apostle informs us what foundation he had laid at the bottom of all his labours among them–even Jesus Christ, the chief corner-stone, Eph. ii. 20. Upon this foundation all the faithful ministers of Christ build. Upon this rock all the Christians found their hopes. Those that build their hopes of heaven on any other foundation build upon the sand. Other foundation can no man lay besides what is laid–even Jesus Christ. Note, The doctrine of our Saviour and his mediation is the principal doctrine of Christianity. It lies at the bottom, and is the foundation, of all the rest. Leave out this, and you lay waste all our comforts, and leave no foundation for our hopes as sinners. It is in Christ only that God is reconciling a sinful world to himself, 2 Cor. v. 19. But of those that hold the foundation, and embrace the general doctrine of Christ’s being the mediator between God and man, there are two sorts:–

      I. Some build upon this foundation gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12), namely, those who receive and propagate the pure truths of the gospel, who hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and preach nothing else. This is building well upon a good foundation, making all of apiece, when ministers not only depend upon Christ as the great prophet of the church, and take him for their guide and infallible teacher, but receive and spread the doctrines he taught, in their purity, with out any corrupt mixtures, without adding or diminishing.

      II. Others build wood, hay, and stubble, on this foundation; that is, though they adhere to the foundation, they depart from the mind of Christ in many particulars, substitute their own fancies and inventions in the room of his doctrines and institutions, and build upon the good foundation what will not abide the test when the day of trial shall come, and the fire must make it manifest, as wood, hay, and stubble, will not bear the trial by fire, but must be consumed in it. There is a time coming when a discovery will be made of what men have built on this foundation: Every man’s work shall be made manifest, shall be laid open to view, to his own view and that of others. Some may, in the simplicity of their hearts, build wood and stubble on the good foundation, and know not, all the while, what they have been doing; but in the day of the Lord their own conduct shall appear to them in its proper light. Every man’s work shall be made manifest to himself, and made manifest to others, both those that have been misled by him and those that have escaped his errors. Now we may be mistaken in ourselves and others; but there is a day coming that will cure all our mistakes, and show us ourselves, and show us our actions in the true light, without covering or disguise: For the day shall declare it (that is, every man’s work), because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is, v. 13. The day shall declare and make it manifest, the last day, the great day of trial; see ch. iv. 5. Though some understand it of the time when the Jewish nation was destroyed and their constitution thereby abolished, when the superstructure which judaizing teachers would have raised on the Christian foundation was manifested to be no better than hay and stubble, that would not bear the trial. The expression carries in it a plain allusion to the refiner’s art, in which the fire separates and distinguishes the dross from the gold and silver; as it also will silver and gold and precious stones, that will endure the fire, from wood and hay and stubble, that will be consumed in it. Note, There is a day coming that will as nicely distinguish one man from another, and one man’s work from another’s, as the fire distinguishes gold from dross, or metal that will bear the fire from other materials that will be consumed in it. In that day, 1. Some men’s works will abide the trial–will be found standard. It will appear that they not only held the foundation, but that they built regularly and well upon it–that they laid on proper materials, and in due form and order. The foundation and the superstructure were all of a piece. The foundation-truths, and those that had a manifest connection with them, were taught together. It may not be so easy to discern this connection now, nor know what works will abide the trial then; but that day will make a full discovery. And such a builder shall not, cannot fail of a reward. He will have praise and honour in that day, and eternal recompence after it. Note, Fidelity in the ministers of Christ will meet with a full and ample reward in a future life. Those who spread true and pure religion in all the branches of it, and whose work will abide in the great day, shall receive a reward. And, Lord, how great! how much exceeding their deserts! 2. There are others whose works shall be burnt (v. 15), whose corrupt opinions and doctrines, or vain inventions and usages in the worship of God, shall be discovered, disowned, and rejected, in that day–shall be first manifested to be corrupt, and then disapproved of God and rejected. Note, The great day will pluck off all disguises, and make things appear as they are: He whose work shall be burnt will suffer loss. If he have built upon the right foundation wood and hay and stubble, he will suffer loss. His weakness and corruption will be the lessening of his glory, though he may in the general have been an honest and an upright Christian. This part of his work will be lost, turning no way to his advantage, though he himself may be saved. Observe, Those who hold the foundation of Christianity, though they build hay, wood, and stubble, upon it, may be saved. This may help to enlarge our charity. We should not reprobate men for their weakness: for nothing will damn men but wickedness. He shall be saved, yet so as by fire, saved out of the fire. He himself shall be snatched out of that flame which will consume his work. This intimates that it will be difficult for those that corrupt and deprave Christianity to be saved. God will have no mercy on their works, though he may pluck them as brands out of the burning. On this passage of scripture the papists found their doctrine of purgatory, which is certainly hay and stubble: a doctrine never originally fetched from scripture, but invented in barbarous ages, to feed the avarice and ambition of the clergy, at the cost of those who would rather part with their money than their lusts, for the salvation of their souls. It can have no countenance from this text, (1.) Because this is plainly meant of a figurative fire, not of a real one: for what real fire can consume religious rites or doctrines? (2.) Because this fire is to try men’s works, of what sort they are; but purgatory-fire is not for trial, not to bring men’s actions to the test, but to punish for them. They are supposed to be venial sins, not satisfied for in this life, for which satisfaction must be made by suffering the fire of purgatory. (3.) Because this fire is to try every man’s works, those of Paul and Apollos, as well as those of others. Now, no papists will have the front to say apostles must have passed through purgatory fires.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Other foundation ( ). The gender of the adjective is here masculine as is shown by . If neuter, it would be . It is masculine because Paul has Christ in mind. It is not here a different kind of gospel ( , Gal 1:6; 2Cor 11:4) which is not another (, Ga 1:7) in reality. But another Jesus (2Co 11:4, ) is a reflection on the one Lord Jesus. Hence there is no room on the platform with Jesus for another Saviour, whether Buddha, Mahomet, Dowie, Eddy, or what not. Jesus Christ is the one foundation and it is gratuitous impudence for another to assume the role of Foundation.

Than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus ( , ). Literally, “alongside () the one laid (),” already laid (present middle participle of , used here as often as the perfect passive of in place of ). Paul scouts the suggestion that one even in the interest of so-called “new thought” will dare to lay beside Jesus another foundation for religion. And yet I have seen an article by a professor in a theological seminary in which he advocates regarding Jesus as a landmark, not as a goal, not as a foundation. Clearly Paul means that on this one true foundation, Jesus Christ, one must build only what is in full harmony with the Foundation which is Jesus Christ. If one accuses Paul of narrowness, it can be replied that the architect has to be narrow in the sense of building here and not there. A broad foundation will be too thin and unstable for a solid and abiding structure. It can be said also that Paul is here merely repeating the claim of Jesus himself on this very subject when he quoted Ps 118:22f. to the members of the Sanhedrin who challenged his authority (Mark 11:10; Matt 21:42-45; Luke 20:17). Apostles and prophets go into this temple of God, but Christ Jesus is the chief corner stone (, Eph 2:20). All believers are living stones in this temple (1Pe 2:5). But there is only one foundation possible.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “For other foundation.” (themelion gar allon) To build the Christian life one must have the right foundation, Jesus Christ, the Rock, not Mohammed, Zoraster, Confucius, etc. All other foundations are as quick-sand, sinking sand, Mat 7:24-29.

2) “Can no man lay than that is laid.” (Greek oudeis dunatai theinai para ton keimenon) “not one is able to lay along side the one being laid, or already having been laid.” As a genuine foundation for building a Christian life, the character and strength and eternality of none meets the architectural specifications of Jesus our Saviour – “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners,” Heb 7:26.

3) “Which is Jesus Christ.” (hos estin iesous christos) “Who is Jesus Christ.” He was and is too often the rejected stone or Rock of Salvation, rejected for sand, by many, Psa 118:22; Exo 17:6; Act 4:11-12; 1Co 10:4; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:7-8.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

11. For other foundation can no man lay This statement consists of two parts; first, that Christ is the only foundation of the Church; and secondly, that the Corinthians had been rightly founded upon Christ through Paul’s preaching. For it was necessary that they should be brought back to Christ alone, inasmuch as their ears were tickled with a fondness for novelty. It was, too, of no small importance that Paul should be recognized as the principal, and, so to speak, fundamental master-builder, from whose doctrine they could not draw back, without forsaking Christ himself. The sum is this — that the Church must by all means be founded upon Christ alone, and that Paul had executed this department of duty so faithfully that nothing could be found to be wanting in his ministry. Hence, whoever may come after him, can in no other way serve the Lord with a good conscience, or be listened to as ministers of Christ, than by studying to make their doctrine correspond with his, and retain the foundation which he has laid. Hence we infer, that those are not faithful workmen for building up the Church, but on the contrary are scatterers of it, (Mat 12:30,) who succeed faithful ministers, but do not make it their aim to conform themselves to their doctrine, and carry forward what has been well commenced, so as to make it quite manifest (174) that they are attempting no new work. For what can be more pernicious than by a new manner of teaching to harass believers, who have been well instructed in pure doctrine, so that they stagger in uncertainty as to the true foundation. Now the fundamental doctrine, which it were unlawful to undermine, is, that we learn Christ, for Christ is the only foundation of the Church; but there are many who, while they make use of Christ’s name in pretense, tear up the whole truth of God by the roots. (175)

Let us observe, then, in what way the Church is rightly built upon Christ. It is when he alone is set forth for righteousness, redemption, sanctification, wisdom, satisfaction and cleansing; in short, for life and glory; or if you would have it stated more briefly, when he is proclaimed in such a manner that his office and influence are understood in accordance with what we found stated in the close of the first chapter. (1Co 1:30.) If, on the other hand, Christ is only in some degree acknowledged, and is called a Redeemer only in name, while in the meantime recourse is had to some other quarter for righteousness, sanctification and salvation, he is driven off from the foundation, and spurious (176) stones are substituted in his room. It is in this manner that Papists act, who rob him of almost all his ornaments, leaving him scarcely anything but the bare name. Such persons, then, are far from being founded on Christ. For as Christ is the foundation of the Church, because he is the only source of salvation and eternal life — because in him we come to know God the Father — because in him we have the source of every blessing; if he is not acknowledged as such he is no longer regarded as the foundation

But it is asked — “Is Christ only a part, or simply the commencement of the doctrine of salvation, as the foundation is merely a part of the building; for if it were so, believers would have only their commencement in Christ, and would be perfected without him. Now this Paul might seem to intimate.” I answer that this is not the meaning of the words; otherwise he would contradict himself when he says elsewhere, that “in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ” (Col 2:3.) He, then, who has learned Christ, (Eph 4:20,) is already complete in the whole system of heavenly doctrine. But as Paul’s ministry had contemplated rather the founding of the Corinthians than the raising up among them of the top-stone of the building, he merely shows here what he had done in respect of his having preached Christ in purity. With respect to himself therefore, he calls him the foundation, while at the same time he does not thereby exclude him from the rest of the building. In fine, Paul does not put any kind of doctrine in opposition to the knowledge of Christ, but on the contrary there is a comparison between himself and the ministers.

(174) “ En sorte qu’on puisse voir a l’oeil;” — “So that one may see with the eye.”

(175) “ Arrachent et renversent entierement;” — “They tear up and entirely overthrow”

(176) “ Et non eonvenantes;” — “And not suitable.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

WHAT WILL BE THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE?

1Co 3:11-15

SCHWEINFURTHS pretentions perished some years since; Sanford is now seldom heard of; Dowie is long dead, and so is Mrs. Eddy, and the advocates of the doctrine, Matter is no part of the reality of existence, are in court to keep their unreal hands upon their unreal dollars. And yet, of the making of new religions, there is no end. A Cornell University professor, who was not even religious, outlined the coming religion. R. J. Campbell was engaged in a campaign for The Coming Religion for England. The late Professor Foster tried to take out a patent on The Plans for Future Faith, and sold each copy of it at $4.20 net. It would not have been cheap as a gift. It would seem worth while for those who are without a personal axe to grind in the propagation of a new faith, to calmly consider the Coming Religion, and candidly inquire what it will be like, and what is to be our attitude toward the same.

In investigating the claims of movements, modern and ancient, some of us are convinced that Paul, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, carefully delineated the Coming Religion, describing its foundation, defining its frame, and depicting its finial.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE COMING RELIGION

Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The religion which is destined to dominate the future will retain Christ for its foundationChrist, as the eternal Son of God, Christ as the sinners substitute, and Christ as the solitary Head of the Church.

Christ as the Eternal Son of God. At this present moment the real conflict in the theological world rages about the question of Christ. A few years since the good natured Conservatives, who deplored any debate, were saying, Whatever the critics take from us, Christ will remain. And even the critics themselves were then conceding that Christ could not be touched; but scores, if not hundreds of preachers, have risen up to deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus, His physical resurrection from the grave, and His ascension to the right hand of God, thereby reducing Him to the level of a mortal man. Some of them reach this conclusion by disputing the authority of the sacred Scriptures; others by the adoption of the evolutionary theory, and one of the latest, by claiming that Christ appeared to him in person and confessed that He was nothing more than the son of Joseph.

But these are not new movements. The Deity of Jesus was disputed by Scribe and Pharisee, explained away by Greek Gnostics, and even derided by the Rationalists of Johns day. And yet the conviction that He was none other than the Son of God has grown, until, beginning with a solitary disciple, it has made conquest of hundreds, thousands, and even millions of men. The evidence which convinced an uncultured Roman soldier conquered the logical mind of a Gladstone, and excited the uncompromising testimony of a Webster. That biggest-brained statesman said concerning Jesus, Every act of His pure and holy life shows that He was the author of truth, the advocate of truth, and the uncompromising sufferer for truth * *. Christ was what He professed to be. In some quarters people have questioned whether Tennyson, in his Universalism, made Christ the foundation of all, but listen while he sings, What the sun is to the flower, Jesus Christ is to my soul. The religion of the future, if it dominates the world and does men good, will retain as fundamental, Christ the Eternal Son of God.

Christ as the sinners substitute. This truth is now inveighed against in some pulpits. Men professing to be abreast of the times have repudiated the blood without the shedding of which there is no remission. To such an extent has this defection from Scriptural teaching occurred that the late Dr. Augustus H. Strong, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, sent a message to the students of Rochester Theological Seminary, saying, I am distressed by some of the common theological tendencies of our times, because I believe them to be false to both science and religion. How men who have ever felt themselves to be lost sinners, and who have once received pardon from their crucified Lord and Saviour, can thereafter seek to tear down His attributes, deny His Deity and Atonement, tear from His brow the crown of miracle and sovereignty, relegate Him to the place of a merely moral teacher who influences us only as does Socrates by words spoken across a stretch of ages, passes my comprehension.

Certain pulpit orators, whose audiences are scarcely an inspiration, are saying, The religion of the future will be ethical, as if the old doctrine of Christ, the sinners substitute, was not so. To this Campbell Morgan has answered, If the great movements under Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, Moody, were not ethical, what were they? They were movements that took hold of vast masses of men and moved them out of back streets into front ones. And if that was not ethical, surely nothing can be so! Beginning with regeneration of a man they changed his environment, and made him a citizen of whom any city might have been proud. That is the true ethical tone.

It is a fact which history abundantly illustrates, that human progress is by the way of human suffering. Some man must perish for the sins of the people. The work of Jesus Christ in this matter is not unique, extraneous, or unnatural; it was only extensive, effective, sufficient. If Nathan Hale could serve his country by his death, why could not Jesus Christ save one of His little worlds by laying down His life in its behalf, so that stricken sinners, looking upon Him, might yet have hope, remembering the words of Isaiah, Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: * * He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed? (Isa 53:4-5).

The coming religion will hold as fundamental, Christ, the sinners substitute.

Christ, the solitary Head of the Church. In times past that position has been disputed by the kings of countries characterized by established churches, by the popes of Romanism, and today aspirants for office propose to share it with Him. But it is written, He is the Head of the Body, the Church, and some millenniums since it was prophesied,

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him (Psa 72:8-11).

Years since, I listened to Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman speak on, The New Song. He referred to the time when in Cincinnati the great chorus of the May Festival of Music appeared, with Patti as soprano, Carey as alto, Theodore Toedt as tenor, Whitney as bass. Just before the Hallelujah chorus there was a death-like stillness over all the throng; then suddenly Whitney sang, He shall reign for ever and ever, and Carey lifted it a little higher, For He shall reign for ever and ever, the tenor carried it almost to the sky, For He shall reign for ever and ever. Then the sopranos, as if they were inspired, sang, King of kings and Lord of lords. And then, as if the angels were there with their questionings, How long shall He reign? with one accord they made reply, For ever and ever; for ever and ever. Then, shouting as with the voice of one man, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The coming religion will put the crown of authority on the same brow that once wore the crown of thorns, and Christ shall be all and in all and over all! Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Co 3:11).

But having begun with the figure of a building, Paul continues after the same manner. Permit us, therefore, some remarks concerning

THE FRAME OF THE COMING RELIGION

The design of it is already in the Holy Scriptures. When Moses was about to make the tabernacle, the Lord revealed to him the pattern, including the ark, the altar, and every part of it, from the remotest limits of the outer court to the sacred holy of holies, and then enjoined, Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount (Exo 25:40). Those who propose to frame the religion of the future must climb Gods holy hill, and attend again and again upon what God has spoken, and they will find not one point of human experience without provision; not one need of body, soul or spirit left in neglect. It is all in the Word! George C. Lorimer said truly, There is no position we occupy, no relationship we sustain, no serious issue we have to meet, concerning which we may not, if we will, obtain the fullest information; neither is there any honest doubt, springing from a troubled conscience, that has not its antidote in the affluent provisions of Divine grace. If you would know how to approach and honor your Creator; if you would realize the claims of Christ upon your faith and love, if you would learn how to fulfill your obligations as parent, child, citizen, or friend, and if you would understand how to live and die triumphantly, you have but to consult the Sacred Volume, whose pages glow with simplest wisdom and with safest counsels.

It may be safely asserted that up to the present there is no other such a formula of intelligent faith, or basis of beautiful conduct, as that revealed in the old Book. The man who proposes to put that aside and work out his destiny without the assistance of a design will probably discover (as I did when once I attempted to build a barn without the preparation of any plans for the same) in crookedness of character the result; his creed will be chaotic and his conduct Quixotic.

The material must come from human service. When you have a good foundation and a well designed frame you have not a house. It is no shield against the wind, no shelter against the storm, no shade against the sun. That framework must be filled in. Paul anticipates this, and talks of our building either with the stable material of gold, silver, precious stones, or the ephemeral stock of wood, hay, stubble, declaring, Every mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is (1Co 3:12-13).

There are two classes of religionists in the world, the one made up of people who hold that creed is conduct, believing that if they accept the Bible as inspired from cover to cover they may then sit and sing themselves away to everlasting bliss, and God will be well satisfied with them. The other class believes that conduct is creed; if you only behave decently it doesnt make much difference what opinions you entertain or propagate. Both are wrong! As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. A dead creed, however true, is worth nothing; a living creed, if true, will express itself in approved conduct. The true Apostle of Jesus says, I will shew thee my faith by my works.

The country is full of people who have joined the church, been baptized, and count their religious life complete. At Hull, England, a man went to Campbell Morgan and said, Do you know, the strangest thing has happened to me! What? said Morgan. Well, I am a cabinet maker, and I work at a bench, and another man works by my side. He has worked by my side for five years. I thought I would like to get him to come to some of these meetings, and this morning I summoned up my courage and said to him, Charlie, I want you to come along tonight to some meetings we are having down in Wilberforce Hall. He looked at me and said, You dont mean to say you are a Christian? and I answered, Yes, I am. Well, he said, so am I. Wasnt it funny? he remarked. Funny, said Dr. Morgan, is he here? If so, you both want to get down and start again; you were never regenerated.

I believe Dr. Morgan was right. The coming religion will never be advanced by the man of whom it can be said, Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead; who says he belongs to Christ but presents Him with no service. I do not know but the churches of this country ought to enter upon a campaign of discipline, and demand of their dead membership either a response to the call of God, or a retirement from the Church of God.

Len Broughton tells the story of an old judge in the mountains of Georgia, characterized by his ignorance of law, but abundance of common sense. Coming into court one morning he found a witness seated in the witness chair with a shawl around him. You here to bear testimony? Yes. Put up your right hand. Judge, my right hand is paralyzed. Hold up your left hand then. The left arm is off. In a spirit of semi-exasperation, he shouted, Stick up your foot. The witness answered, Got them both shot off in the late war. Then stand on your head, you have got to put up something in this court!

Some stand for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, believe the old Book is inspired from cover to cover, and that its statements are scientific; but solemnly, it does not matter how orthodox a man is, if he has nothing to put up in proof of the faith that is in him, he is a parasite on the ecclesiastical body, and can only retard the coming of true religion.

The Master Builder is the Holy Spirit. Of Him Jesus said, When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. In building it is essential to have a supervisor; a man who combines in one, direction and command. Laggards do not like it. Earnest workmen understand its advantages, and gladly acknowledging the supremacy, receive suggestions. Sometimes you will find the master builder not only a director but a dynamo; he has power in himself and he knows how to impart energy to other people. The Spirit of God is such a director. The church that works under His guidance will neither be crooked nor incompetent. Dr. Gordon used to be impressed to see signs as he walked the streets of Boston which read, Room for rent; with or without power. The Church of God cannot afford the latter, and it need not, since the Spirit stands ready to administer its affairs.

The individual need not be without power, since the same Spirit is willing to descend upon him and upon her. If you are a clerk in the shop, the Comforter will come there if you concede His right and surrender to His reign. If you are the manager of a great corporation He will solve your difficult questions, and show you how to make both your cash and your character tell for Christ. If you are a mother in the home, oppressed by a thousand cares, He will teach you patience, aid you in perseverance, and enrich you with the results. A young man said, My mother never made much ado about religion, but as sure as you live she had it. There was something in her life that followed me after she was gone until I was constrained to give my heart to God. Let us affirm it as a fact that in the coming religion men will not be left to themselves to choose their course, think out the proper conduct and build up the proper character; the Spirit of God will administer, and men will marvel at what He has wrought through those who are truly the Lords own.

The builders have a term which is seldom used in every-day speech, it is the finialan ornament at the apex of a spire, pinnacle, or the like; a common form in pointed architecture is that of a bud about to open. How the idea fits the Apostles speech, If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward (1Co 3:14).

THE FINIAL OF THE COMING RELIGION

What is in that bud? What is the purpose of it, and what is the promise?

Surely, the holiness of the individual. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, said of Christ,

He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph 4:11-13).

That is the meaning of Christs phrase, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect (Mat 5:48). It refers not alone to the development of powers, but to separateness from sin. A whole life is also a holy life; hence the command, Be ye holy.

Compromise with the devil will never make a conquering church, and the professed Christian who does not keep himself unspotted from the world will make no contribution to the coming religion.

Certainly, the happiness of the earth. That is another feature of the finial of the coming religion. True religion is not self-seeking; it is sacrificial. It does not even so much concern itself with personal ecstacy as it does with the happiness of the people. The evidence of Abrahams beautiful character is in the pledge God made him, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. The statement that forever ends all quibble concerning Pauls conversion is his cry over unregenerate Israel, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom 9:3). The words of Jesus, as He looked over Jerusalem, were abundant testimony to His Sonship, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Mat 23:37).

More men profess to be Christs than show any concern for His cause. After consenting to its supreme importance, we let Edison shame us at the point of diligence. Archimedes, we are told, was so absorbed in a problem which he had traced upon the sand, that he didnt know of the fall of Syracuse. When he saw a Roman soldier rushing upon him with drawn sword, he raised his eyes to cry, Hold your hands a little; only spare my life until I have solved this problem. Ours is a greater problem the problem of human happiness, human honor, human redemption. And if the coming religion is to find a finial worthy of it, those of us who name Jesus must give ourselves diligently to the solution of the same.

Finally, that finial involves a home in Heaven. A Cornell professor once said, The coming religion will deal in no futures! It will address itself to present problems. But you take eternity from the views of men and you destroy the interest in the things of time. Beasts think; their reasoning powers are capable of some cultivation, but they are without hope for the future, and their aspirations never rise above the expression of utter selfishness. Their whole world is one in which every individual is for himself and the devil gets the hindermost. Thank God, the religion of the future, like the true religion of the past, will present another prospect, will hold out another promise. Jesus has voiced it:

In My Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Joh 14:2-3).

R. F. Horton says of our present fellowship with Christ, The heaven we have is a pledge of the heaven which is to be. * * We have tasted the manna sent down from Heaven, but the land flowing with milk and honey is yet in reserve. Certain mansions of our Fathers house which lie along the line of pilgrimage have been open to us, and we have repeatedly, in them, been entertained with banquet and with song. But we surmise, sitting at the feet of Jesus, that the starry heavens, that wide and shining house of God, are not more vastly removed above the poor littleness of this dim spot that men call earth than the range of mansions in the Fathers house excels even those fair habitations in which we have sojourned.

Do you remember how in Marble Faun Hawthorne presents Donatello and Miriam as wandering aimlessly along a street at the end of which stood Hildas tower? He says, There was a light in her high chamber; a light too, at the Virgins shrine, and the glimmer of these two was the loftiest light beneath the stars. Miriam drew Donatellos arm to make him stop. And while they stood at some distance, looking at Hildas window, they beheld her approach and throw it open. She leaned far forth and extended her clasped hands towards the sky. The good, pure child! She is praying, Donatello, said Miriam, with a kind of simple joy at witnessing the devoutness of her friend. Then her own sin rushed upon her, and she shouted with the rich strength of her voice, Pray for us, Hilda; we need it! Whether Hilda heard and recognized the voice we cannot tell. The window was immediately closed, and her form disappeared from behind the snowy curtain. Miriam felt this to be a token that the cry of her condemned spirit was shut out of Heaven.

No religion which despises Heaven will ever command the deep interest of men. In the future, as in the past, that synonym of all conceivable happiness, Heaven, will hold to itself all pure hearts and all righteous hopes. The angels must pity the man, and even with strong crying and tears, commiserate the woman who misses it.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

11. Can no man lay For other foundations, however laid, would prove to be no foundations at all.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For no man can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.’

But now we come the crux of the illustration, there is only one foundation. All centres on Christ. They all profess to be labouring for God but woe betide them if they build on any other foundation. For there is no other. All who do God’s work properly must do so basing all they do on the one true foundation as Paul did, and that foundation is Jesus Christ. That is the foundation Paul initially laid for the Corinthian church by his preaching of the cross and the Crucified One. That is the only sound foundation that any man of God can lay for any church. There is no other. Thus the attention of all must primarily be on Jesus Christ.

It is in Christ as the Crucified One, and all that that implies of Godhood and Manhood and redemption, and righteousness and sanctification and eternal life, that all truth is found. And anything built on that foundation must be founded and established in Him and His work, for He is the foundation, the One on Whom all else rests. All must finally centre on Him. And it is He Who is the foundation of the Corinthian church.

Thus all of his fellow-preachers are, if they are true, to be united in looking to and building on that one foundation. Jesus Christ must be all. And the Corinthians themselves must be looking towards that Foundation, and resting on Him and not be gazing at the workers. For one day how they build will be tested. But the foundation will not need testing. The foundation is secure, permanent and true. Christ is beyond testing. He is the Truth.

But on that firmly laid Foundation on which the Corinthian church, and the world church, is built, on which the whole true church is built, and in a sense each individual member is built, there will be much building activity. The materials used for the building as now described clearly refer to sound or unsound approaches to teaching, true or deceptive doctrine, true wisdom and understanding or false wisdom and understanding. But the principle clearly applies more widely, for it also applies to all work done for God.

Note that the foundation is said to be ‘Jesus Christ’ not ‘the Gospel of Christ’. That is so that all eyes might look to Him as such on Whom alone all that they preach should rest. Of course the Gospel is Christ. That is what it is all about. But the centrality of Christ Himself, as against all others, is being stressed here. He is all.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 3:11 . ] justifies the foregoing warning, in so far as it is given exclusively to the upbuilder : for with the layer of the foundation it is quite different, he cannot otherwise than , etc.; but as regards the upbuilder , the case is, as 1Co 3:12 ff. sets forth. We are not to bring in any intermediate thought to explain the , either with Billroth: “each, however, must bethink himself of carrying on the building;” or, with Hofmann, that in the case of all others the question simply concerns a right building up. Rather we are to note that 1Co 3:11 stands only in a preparatory relation to 1Co 3:12 , in which the varying of the is exhibited.

] can , not may (Grotius, Glass, and others, including Storr, Rosenmller, Pott, Billroth); for it is the Christian church that is spoken of, whose structure is incapable of having another foundation.

] i.e. different from that, which lies already there. Respecting after in this sense, see Krger, a [506] Dion. p. 9; Stallbaum, a [507] Phileb. p. 51; Ast, Lex. Plat. III. p. 28. The foundation already lying there , however, is not that which Paul had laid (so most interpreters, resting on 1Co 3:10 ; including de Wette, Neander, Maier, Hofmann); for his affirmation is universal , and if no one can lay another foundation than that which lies already there, Paul, of course, could not do so either, and therefore the must have been in its place before the apostle himself laid his foundation. Hence the is that laid by God (so, rightly, Rckert and Olshausen), namely, Jesus Christ Himself , the fundamentum essentiale , He whom God sent, delivered up to death, raised again, and exalted, thereby making Him to be for us wisdom, righteousness, etc. (1Co 1:30 ), or, according to a kindred figure, the corner-stone (Eph 2:20 ; Mat 21:42 ; Act 4:10 f.; 1Pe 2:6 ). Comp 1Ti 3:16 . This is the objective foundation , which lies there for the whole of Christendom. But this foundation is laid (1Co 3:10 ) by the founder of a church, inasmuch as he makes Christ to be appropriated by believers, to be the contents of their conscious faith, and thereby establishes them in the character of a Christian church; that is the doctrinal laying of the foundation (fundamentum dogmaticum ).

Observe further, that Paul says purposely , so as emphatically to designate the personal, historically manifested Christ. This is the sum of the fundamental Christian confession of faith, Joh 17:3 ; Phi 2:11 ; Act 4:10 ff.

[506] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[507] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1945
CHRIST THE ONLY FOUNDATION

1Co 3:11. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

THERE is not any thing more injurious to the Church of God than a party-spirit: yet even in the apostolic age did it begin to distract the Christian community. At Corinth it prevailed, and rose to an alarming height: and St. Paul was obliged to exert all his influence in order to counteract it. He reminded the partisans, that, as Gods building, they should be cemented together with brotherly love: that they should study to shew themselves worthy of the place they held in the Church, in expectation of that day when all their works should be tried by fire: and that, instead of fomenting strifes and divisions, they should unite with each other in cleaving steadfastly to the one foundation, whereon they stood.
The declaration in the text is plain, and of infinite importance
To enter more fully into it we shall consider,

I.

What foundations men lay for themselves

Every man has some foundation for his hope. Though there are many shades of difference in the sentiments of different men, yet their grounds of hope may be reduced to two:

1.

Their own goodness

[Some think that nothing but gross sin can expose them to the wrath of God. They therefore congratulate themselves as having never done any thing to merit his displeasure. Others imagine that they may trust in the good works that they have done. They have, in their own apprehension, been regular in their duties to God and man: nor can they conceive that they should have any reason to fear. Thus, like the Pharisee of old, they thank God that they are not as other men; and are filled with self-complacency, because they are punctual in the observance of certain duties [Note: Luk 18:11-12.].]

2.

Their own works and Christs merits united

[Many, who see that their own works cannot justify them according to the strict tenour of the law, yet hope that they will, according to the milder demands of the Gospel. If they see that these will not suffice, they will look to Christ to supply their deficiencies. If they see that such an union is impracticable, and, that Jesus must be their only foundation, they hope, however, that he will save them for their works sake. Thus they either avowedly profess to participate with Christ the honour of their salvation; or, while they pretend to give the honour of it to him, they look for the original and moving cause of it within themselves. Like the Judaizing Christians [Note: Act 15:5.], or the Gentiles whom Peter misled [Note: Gal 2:12; Gal 2:14.], they unite the law to Christ; as though Christ needed to have something superadded to him, to render his death effectual. At all events, if they find their error in this respect, they will regard their works as their warrant to believe in Christ; and will expect mercy at his hands, not so much because his grace is free and all-sufficient, as because they have something in themselves, which may deserve his notice and regard.]

These plans of salvation however will be found very erroneous, if we inquire,

II.

What is that foundation which God has laid

Nothing can be more clear, than that he has not laid either of those, which have been before mentioned
[He often describes his people as performing good works: and often promises them, under that character, eternal life. But he always represents us as sinners, and as standing in need of his mercy. And he has sent his Son into the world for that very reason, because none could obtain mercy by any works of their own. Nor has he less clearly shewn, that works are wholly to be excluded from the office of justifying. He has told us, that salvation must be wholly of grace or wholly of works [Note: Rom 11:6.]. That every degree of boasting is excluded from that salvation which he has revealed [Note: Rom 3:27. Eph 2:8-9.]. And that the persons, whom he justifies, are ungodly, and without any works whatever to recommend them [Note: Rom 4:5.].]

Christ is the one foundation which he has laid in Zion
[He has set forth his Son to be a propitiation for sin: and every sinner is to build his hope on Christ alone. Christ is the foundation laid in the covenant of grace [Note: Gen 17:19. Heb 8:6.]. The same is laid in all the promises [Note: Gen 3:15; Gen 22:18. 2Co 1:20.]. The same was exhibited in all the types [Note: The Paschal Lamb, the Scape Goat, &c.]. The same is laid also in the Gospel [Note: 1Pe 2:4-6.]. We are expressly told that there is no other [Note: Act 4:12.]. Nor indeed can there be any other to all eternity.]

The necessity of building upon this will appear, while we consider,

III.

Why no other can be laid

Many reasons might easily be assigned: but one or two may suffice:

1.

Any other would be unworthy of the Divine Architect

[God himself is the architect [Note: ver. 9.]; and must have all the glory of beginning and perfecting this building. But, if men were to found their hopes on any thing but the Lord Jesus Christ, they would have whereof to glory [Note: Rom 4:2.]. So far as respect was had to any merit in them, so far might they ascribe the honour to themselves. Even in heaven their song must differ from that of the redeemed. Instead of giving all the glory to God and to the Lamb [Note: Rev 5:13.], they must take a portion of it to themselves. But this would be utterly unworthy of God to suffer. Indeed he has told us that he never can nor will suffer it [Note: 1Co 1:29; 1Co 1:31. Eph 2:8-9.]. We may be sure therefore that no such way of salvation shall ever be established, as leaves man at liberty to boast. We shall be rewarded according to our works, and in some respect for our works; but the only ground of acceptance, either for our persons or our services, is in Christ alone [Note: Eph 1:6.].]

2.

No other would support the weight that is to be laid upon it

[Whatever our souls need in time or eternity must be derived from that, which is the foundation of our hope. Our pardon must be obtained by it; our peace flow from it; our strength and righteousness be given us on account of it; and eternal glory be bestowed on us, as the reward of it. And can we build our hope of such things in any degree on our own works? Can we, who, if we had done all that is commanded us, should be only unprofitable servants, imagine, that we can in any respect merit such things, when we have done nothing that is commanded us, at least, nothing perfectly, or as we ought to have done it? Surely such an hope would soon appear to be a foundation of sand; and would infallibly disappoint us to our eternal ruin. Yea, the very persons who build on such a foundation, almost invariably deny, that any man can be assured of his acceptance with God; they account such an assurance to be an enthusiastic delusion; which is a clear acknowledgment of the insufficiency of their foundation to bear this weight.]

Infer,
1.

How needful is it to inquire what foundation we are upon!

[If we build but a common habitation, we are careful on what foundation we raise it. How much more care should we exercise, when we are building for eternity! Let us inquire, whether we have been deeply convinced of the insufficiency of our own goodness, and of the impossibility of uniting any works of ours with Christs atoning sacrifice? And let us examine whether Christs obedience unto death be our only hope, our only confidence? We never can be saved, unless, with Paul, we utterly renounce the filthy rags of our own righteousness, and desire to be found clad in Christs unspotted robe [Note: Isa 64:6. Php 3:9.].]

2.

How secure are they who are built upon the Lord Jesus Christ!

[Christ, on whom they stand, is justly called a tried stone, and a sure foundation [Note: Isa 28:16.]. He never yet failed those who trusted in him. The vilest of mankind have found him able to save them to the uttermost. He is a rock to those who trust in him; nor shall the gates of hell prevail against them [Note: Mat 16:18.]. Let all believers then rejoice in their security; and hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering [Note: Heb 10:23.].]

3.

How careful should we be, what superstructure we raise upon him!

[While Christ is the foundation of our hope, we are also to build upon him all our works. But our works will all be tried by fire. If they be not such as tend to his glory, they will be burnt up as hay, and wood, and stubble. If they be truly good, they will stand the trial, like gold, or silver, or precious stones [Note: ver. 1114.]. Let us then give diligent heed to our works. We may suffer loss in heaven, though we should not suffer the loss of heaven [Note: ver. 15.]. Let us then seek a full reward [Note: 2 John, ver. 8.]. While we renounce good works in point of dependence, let us practise them from love to our Redeemer. Thus shall we put to silence our adversaries; and adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Ver. 11. Which is Jesus Christ ] The doctrine of his person and offices is the foundation of Christian religion, and must therefore be kept pure and entire by all means possible. Arius’s , would not be yielded; nor Nestorius’s , for . So religious were the old bishops, that they would not alter or exchange a letter or a syllable in these fundamentals. Every particle of truth is precious, and not to be parted with.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

11. . ] q. d. ‘I speak of superimposing merely, for it is unnecessary to caution them respecting the foundation itself: there can be but one , and that one HAS ALREADY BEEN (objectively, for all, see below) LAID BY GOD.’ At the same time, in taking this for granted, he implies the strongest possible caution against attempting to lay any other.

, strictly can , not ‘ nemini licet ,’ as Grot., al., nor as Theophyl., , , . ., , . : for it is assumed , that is to be raised and it can only be raised on this one foundation. All who build on other foundations are not , nor is their building at all.

, see reff. and cf. Thucyd. i. 23, .

] not, ‘ by me ,’ but ‘ by God ,’ for universal Christendom; but actually laid in each place , as regards that church , by the minister who founds it. De Wette denies this universal reference, as introducing a new element into the context. But surely the reference in is too direct to the well-known prophecy of the divinely-placed foundation or cornerstone, to surprise any reader or divert his mind from the train of thought by a new element.

, THE PERSONAL, HISTORICAL CHRIST, as the object of all Christian faith. If it be read as in rec., , it need not necessarily be, that Jesus is the Christ , but may be in this case also, JESUS THE CHRIST; not any doctrine , even that of the Messiahship of Jesus, is the foundation, but JESUS HIMSELF (see var. readd.).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 3:11 is a parenthetical comment on : As to the foundation, that is settled; the workman has to build upon it , not to shift it, nor add to it. . . .: “For another foundation none can lay, beside ( other than , possibly suggesting also in competition with ; or contrary to ) that which is laid down, which is JESUS CHRIST;” other builders there are beside the architect, but no other ground for them to build upon. serves as pf. pass, to (Phi 1:16 , etc.), connoting fixity of situation ( positum est ), and so of destination , as in Luk 2:34 . The work of the Apostolic founders is done, once and for ever; so long as the Church lasts, men will build on what they laid down. , here masc. (read as adj [542] , sc. ), as in 2Ti 2:19 , Heb 11:10 , Rev 21:14 ; Rev 21:19 , and sometimes in LXX; neut. in Act 16:26 , as in the , and commonly in LXX. continuative, rather than definitive (as in 1Co 3:5 ): “There is but one foundation, and it is Jesus Christ”; cf. 1Co 2:2 . 1Co 15:1-11 , etc. , (not . ., nor .), the actual historical person, not any doctrine or argument about Him “Jesus” revealed and known as “Christ”: see Act 2:22 ; Act 2:36 ; Act 17:3 , etc., for the formation of the name; and for this, with Paul the rarer, order, cf. 1Co 2:2 , Rom 5:15 ; Rom 16:25 , etc., also Heb 13:8 ; in each instance Jesus Christ connotes the recognised facts as to His life, death, etc. ( cf. note on 1Co 1:2 ).

[542] adjective.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

no man = no one. Greek. oudeis.

than = beside. App-104.

Jesus Christ. App-98.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

11. . ] q. d. I speak of superimposing merely, for it is unnecessary to caution them respecting the foundation itself: there can be but one, and that one HAS ALREADY BEEN (objectively, for all, see below) LAID BY GOD. At the same time, in taking this for granted, he implies the strongest possible caution against attempting to lay any other.

, strictly can,-not nemini licet, as Grot., al., nor as Theophyl., , , . ., , . :-for it is assumed, that is to be raised-and it can only be raised on this one foundation. All who build on other foundations are not , nor is their building at all.

, see reff. and cf. Thucyd. i. 23, .

] not, by me, but by God, for universal Christendom; but actually laid in each place, as regards that church, by the minister who founds it. De Wette denies this universal reference, as introducing a new element into the context. But surely the reference in is too direct to the well-known prophecy of the divinely-placed foundation or cornerstone, to surprise any reader or divert his mind from the train of thought by a new element.

, THE PERSONAL, HISTORICAL CHRIST, as the object of all Christian faith. If it be read as in rec., , it need not necessarily be, that Jesus is the Christ, but may be in this case also, JESUS THE CHRIST; not any doctrine, even that of the Messiahship of Jesus, is the foundation, but JESUS HIMSELF (see var. readd.).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 3:11. , for) The reason, why he says so deliberately, builds thereon.-, no man) not even Apollos.-, lay) at Corinth, and wherever Christ was made known.- , Jesus Christ) each name here is properly placed.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 3:11

1Co 3:11

For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.-There is but one foundation on which a church of Christ can be laid. Paul had laid that foundation when he preached in Corinth that Jesus is the Christ. When Peter confessed his faith in Jesus, saying: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus said unto him: Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Mat 16:16-18). There is controversy as to what constitutes the rock on which Christ would build his church; but Paul says that Christ is the only foundation that can be laid.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The Teachers Great text

For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each mans work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each mans work of what sort it is.1Co 3:11-13.

1. The vivid imagination of St. Paul puts before us here an important truth in a picturesque form. Two workmen are building side by side. One builds a palace, the other a hovel. The materials which one uses are gold and silver, for decoration; and for solidity costly stones, by which is not meant diamonds and emeralds and the like, but valuable building material, such as marbles and granites and alabaster. The other employs timber, dry reeds, straw. No doubt in Corinth, as in all ancient cities, side by side with the temples shining in marble and Corinthian brass were the huts of the poor and of slaves built of such flimsy materials as these. Suddenly there plays around both buildings a great fire, the fire of the Lord coming to Judgment. The marbles gleam the whiter, and the gold and the silver flash the more resplendently, whilst the tongues of light leap about them; but the straw hovel goes up in a flare! The one man gets wages for work that lasts, the other man gets no pay for what perishes. He is dragged through the smoke, saved by a hairs breadth, but sees all his toil lying there in white ashes at his feet.

The building, if it be really of gold, silver, and precious stones, is not destroyed. It becomes rather, in due course, the foundation on which the new superstructure is reared. Is not that the meaning of the somewhat difficult lines in Brownings Aristophanes Apology?

And whats my teaching butaccept the old,

Contest the strange! acknowledge work thats done,

Misdoubt men who have still their work to do!

Religions, laws and customs, poetries,

Are old? So much achieved victorious truth!

Each work was product of a lifetime, wrung

From each man by an adverse world: for why?

He worked, destroying other older work

Which the world loved and so was loth to lose.

Whom the world beat in battledust and ash!

Who beat the world, left work in evidence,

And wears its crown till new men live new lives,

And fight new fights, and triumph in their turn.1 [Note: J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 200.]

2. The original application of these words is distinctly to Christian teachers. The whole section starts from a rebuke of the party spirit in the Corinthian Church which led them to swear by Paul or Peter or Apollos, and to despise all teachers but their own favourite. The Apostle reminds these jangling partisans that all teachers are but instruments in Gods hands, who is the true Worker, the true Husbandman, the true Builder. That word opens up a whole region of thought to his ardent mind. He goes on to speak of the foundation which God has laid, namely, the mission of Jesus Christ. That foundation laid once for all in actual reality, in the historical facts of our Lords life, death, and resurrection, had been laid in preaching by St. Paul when he founded the Corinthian Church. There cannot be two foundations. So all other teachers at Corinth have only to build on that foundation, that is, to carry on a course of Christian teaching which rests upon that fundamental truth. Let all such teachers take heed what sort of materials they build on that foundation, that is to say, what sort of teaching they offer; for there may be gold, and silver, and precious stonessolid and valuable instruction; or there may be timber, and hay, and strawworthless and unsubstantial teaching. The materials with which the teachers build are evidently the instruction which they give, or the doctrines which they teach.

This, then, is the teachers Great Text. The teachers work is spoken of as building, with the certainty that one day the building will be tested by fire. Let us consider

I.The Foundation.

II.The Building.

III.The Fire.

I

The Foundation

1. The Foundation is already laid.Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. It was laid in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was laid before St. Paul himself or any of the Apostles began to teach.

A paradox which found favour with some of the earlier moods of German Rationalism went to the effect that St. Paul and not Jesus Christ was the real founder of Christendom. How the writer of the indignant appeal to the Corinthians, Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? could ever have been seated, by the convictions of any intelligent readers of his Epistles, in his Masters place, might well raise our wonder, if experience did not prove that of all credulity the easiest is that which is enjoined by unbelief, and of all theories, the wildest are those which are put forward in order to discredit the creed of Christendom. If the Church is built upon the labour of Apostles, as her foundation, the Apostles themselves rested on the Chief Corner-stone. And, indeed, since Schleiermacher, the paradox in question has been discredited well-nigh everywhere. It is one of that great mans many claims to honour, that he did more than any other writer in his day and country to reassert Christs true historical relation to the Christian Church.

In a lecture, given in St. Georges, Edinburgh, Principal Rainy made this comparison between Jesus and Paul: We can easily mark the tie between the two; we also easily feel the difference. In both, there is goodwill to men below; in both, a constant reference to One above. But in the true manhood of our Lord, we own something serener, more self-contained and sovereign. The love to His Father moves in great tides of even perpetual flow. The love to men is a pure compassion, whose perfect goodness delights in bringing its sympathy and its help to the neediest and the worst, does so with a perfect understanding and an unreserved self-communication. When He speaks, He speaks in the language of His time and land and circumstances, but He speaks like one who addresses human nature itself, finding the way to the common mind and common heart of every land and every age and every condition. When He reasons, it is not like one who is clearing his own thoughts, but like one who turns away from the perversity of the caviller, or who, for the perplexed inquirer, brings into view the elements of the spiritual world he was overlooking or forgetting. And with what resourcenone the less His that He rejoiced to think of it as His Fathersdoes He confront whatever comes to Him in life! As we watch Him, there grows upon us the strongest sense of a perfect inner harmony with Himself and with His Father that lives through all changes. Finally, standing in this world, He declares the order of another and a higher world. He does it as one who knew it, who speaks what He had seen.

We turn to Paul, and we perceive him also to be great; great thoughts, great affections, great efforts, great fruits are his. But he is not great in the manner of his Master. He goes through the world full of a noble self-censure that bows him willingly to the earth, and of a passionate gratitude that cannot speak its thanks but offers up its life. Like his Master, while he reverences the order of this world and of society as God has framed it, he is at the same time full of the relations of a world unseen. To that world unseen he already belongs; it determines for him, and for all who will listen to him, the whole manner of thought and life and feeling in this world; it holds him, it inspires him. But it is in the manner of faith rather than of knowledge, of earnest rather than of possession. Especially, the influence that has mastered him and is the secret of his power and nobleness, has not brought him to the final harmony of all his powers. It has, on the contrary, committed him to an inward conflict, a fight of faith, which he will never cease to wage till the final victory crowns him. This man knows the inward weakness and the inward disgrace of Sin. He knows forgiveness and repentance, and good hope through grace. The Lord received sinners and sat and ate with them; but this man was himself a sinner who was forgiven much and loved much. That was the Saviour: this, a pattern of them that should believe on Him to life everlasting.1 [Note: The Life of Principal Rainy, i. 426.]

2. The Foundation is Jesus Christ.Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. What does the Apostle mean by Jesus Christ? The one thing fundamental, according to the teaching of St. Paul, and according to the teaching of Jesus Himself, is faith in Jesus as the Divine Redeemer of the world. In opposition to this faith there is a Religion of the Human Christ. If we look at the points in which the Religion of a Human Christ differs from the Christian faith we shall see what the Apostle means when he says that the foundation is Jesus Christ.

Two rival views are claiming the allegiance of the present generation. The one finds the basis of Christianity in the teaching of a man, inspired as Moses was inspired and more inspired, Divine as Shakespeare was Divine and more Divine, but now dead in the sense in which Moses is dead and Shakespeare is dead. The other finds the basis of Christianity in the ever-living Person of God for men made Man. Such are the views which, in some form or other, confront each one of us, and between which, sooner or later, we must make our solemn choice.1 [Note: F. Homes Dudden.]

(1) In the first place, the religion of a Human Christ as it is represented, for example, in Renans Life of Jesus or in Robert Elsmere, gives us as our leader, as the centre of our faith, as the object of our reverence, a human hero.

The last movement of Ruskins mind had been away from evangelical faith; it had coincided with his growing admiration of the great worldly, irreligious painters; his religion had become the religion of humanity, though full of sacred colour and melancholy shade; his teaching had been in such exhortations as may be based on intellectual scepticism. But while engaged on drawing Giottos frescoes, I discovered, he says, the fallacy under which I had been tormented for sixteen yearsthe fallacy that Religious artists were weaker than Irreligious. I found that all Giottos weaknesses (so called) were merely absences of material science. He did not know, and could not, in his day, so much of perspective as Titianso much of the laws of light and shade, or so much of technical composition. But I found he was in the make of him, and contents, a very much stronger and greater man than Titian; that the things I had fancied easy in his work, because they were so unpretending and simple, were nevertheless entirely inimitable; that the Religion in him, instead of weakening, had solemnized and developed every faculty of his heart and hand; and finally, that his work, in all the innocence of it, was yet a human achievement and possession, quite above everything that Titian had ever done. This discovery affected, first, Ruskins estimate of painters; and at Florence, presently, he set himself to write of Giotto and his works in Florence, as twenty years before, with a more reserved admiration for the master, he had written of Giotto and his Works in Padua.2 [Note: E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, ii. 253.]

(2) In the second place, this Religion of a Human Christ blots the resurrection out of the Gospel and gives us but a cross and a tomb. Let us read Robert Elsmeres speech to the working men of East London: He laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of a rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. The ashes of Jesus of Nazareth mingled with the earth of Palestine

Far hence he lies

In the lone Syrian town,

And on his grave, with shining eyes,

The Syrian stars look down.

He stopped. The melancholy cadence of the verse died away. Then a gleam broke over the pale, exhausted facea gleam of extraordinary sweetness. And in the days and weeks that followed, the devout and passionate fancy of a few mourning Galileans begat the exquisite fable of the Resurrection. How natural, and amid all its falseness how true, is that nave and contradictory story! The rapidity with which it spread is a measure of many things. It is, above all, a measure of the greatness of Jesus, of the force with which he had drawn to himself the hearts and imaginations of men.

If It may be true, as Mr. Nettleship has said, that A Death in the Desert goes no single step in the direction of proving Christs divinity as a dogma; but the poem itself is void of all meaning, unless, in spite of its dramatic form, it can be regarded as setting forth the deepest conviction of the poets own soul. Hence the verdict of the man who adds the final note is this:

If Christ, as thou affirmest, be of men

Mere man, the first and best but nothing more

Account Him, for reward of what He was,

Now and for ever, wretchedest of all.1 [Note: J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 45.]

(3) Thirdly, the Religion of a Human Christ offers to us a law and an examplenothing more; the religion of Christian faith offers us a Divine power.

Mr. Gladstone has eloquently sketched in a few words the power of the Christian church: Christianity both produced a type of character wholly new to the Roman world and it fundamentally altered the laws and institutions, the tone, temper, and tradition of that world. For example, it changed profoundly the relation of the poor to the rich, and the almost forgotten obligation of the rich to the poor. It abolished slavery, abolished human sacrifice, abolished gladiatorial shows, and a multitude of other horrors. It restored the position of woman in society. It prosecuted polygamy; and put down divorce, absolutely in the West, though not absolutely in the East. It made peace, instead of war, the normal and presumed relation between human societies. It exhibited life as a discipline, everywhere and in all its parts, and changed essentially the place and function of suffering in human experience. Accepting the ancient morality as far as it went, it not only enlarged but transfigured its teaching by the laws of humility and of forgiveness, and by a law of purity even more new and strange than these.

(4) In the fourth place, this Religion of a Human Christ offers a temporal and local religion in place of one that is as eternal and as universal as its Divine Author. Let Robert Elsmere again explain his position: If you wish, Catherine, I will waitI will wait till you bid me speak; but I warn you there is something dead in me, something gone and broken. It can never live again except in forms which now it would only pain you more to think of. It is not that I think differently of this point or that point, but of life and religion altogether. I see Gods purposes in quite other proportions, as it were. Christianity seems to me something small and local. Behind it, around it, including it, I see the great drama of the world, sweeping on, led by God, from change to change, from act to act. It is not that Christianity is false, but that it is only an imperfect human reflection of a part of truth.

It is a perfectly unique and very striking fact, that the views of Christ do not proceed from the concretely defined horizon of any age or any historical sphere, not even from His own. Mark the distinction in this respect between Christ and Socrates.1 [Note: R. Rothe, Still Hours, 213.]

3. The Foundation is the Person of ChristChrist Himself.This has been the teaching of the Church from the earliest day till now. In every age and in every land the Church has taught invariably that the one determining factor of the Christian religion is the Person of Jesus. That is the absolute, essential thing. The Christian religion is not a mere system of doctrine. It is not a mere ethical code. It is not merely a redemptive social force. It is above all dependence on a Person. And therein lies its peculiarity and its novelty. A Church Father of the second century, being pressed with the question, What new thing did the Lord bring by His coming? replied, Know that He brought all newness in bringing us Himself. The distinctive feature of the new religion is the Person of Jesus.

(1) It is Jesus Christ, and not doctrines about Jesus Christ. To say this is not to disparage the precious guidance of Scripture or Creeds or Councils. These Apostolic words, these later definitions, which furnish in our day the favourite topic for so much shallow declamation, are the voice of that Eternal Spirit by whom the whole Body is governed as well as sanctified. They guard and sustain in Christian thought the Divine Saviours peerless honour; they forbid, in tones of merciful severity, false and degrading beliefs about Him. Yet He, our living Lord, is the foundation; and no one can altogether rest upon the formul which uphold and regulate our estimate of His Glory. We prize both Scripture and the Creeds for His sake, not Him for theirs; and to rest upon them, as distinct from Him whom they keep before us, would be like building a wall upon a measuring rule, instead of upon the block of granite, of which it has given us the noble dimensions.

I do not agree with the saying imputed to some one, that God gave man religion, but the devil invented theology as a counterfeit. For theology is not the natural or proper antithesis to religion; still less its opposite or antagonist. It occupies a different sphere; and though dealing with the same subjects in great measure, yet its aim is, or should be, different; and it works by means of different faculties. Religion aims at the production of faith, hope and charity, and all the proper fruits of those graces. It would teach us to trust in God, and love Him, and to obey that second commandment, which is like unto the first both in its scope and in its importance and comprehensivenessThou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. It is that which brings the human soul consciously into relation with God, with an unseen world and a spiritual kingdom, and with a future state of retribution. Religion, therefore, is an appeal to faith and also to conscience, both of which it seeks to quicken and exercise; so that we may be godly towards God, and righteous towards our neighbour, performing all our duties from a principle of obligation and reverence to the great Father who made and loves us all, and requires us to love, pity, and help one another, because of this our common origin and family relation. Religion also requires us to be sober or temperateregulating the appetites of our bodies and the emotions and affections of our minds, so that we be not carried away by them beside or beyond the purposes for which they were implanted, but that they may further us in attaining perfection in this world, and at last eternal felicity.

Now, though theology deals in great part with the same subjects with which religion is concerned, it differs from it in several respects. Religion deals with those subjects in a practical way, chiefly with reference to conduct or life; and it appeals to all parts of our nature, to the affections and emotions as well as to the understanding. It works through hope and fear, and seeks to influence, to restrain, to stimulate, and to regulatein short, to make us wise, holy, good, in all manner of conversation, that we may be perfect in all the will of God. On the other hand, theology is wholly theoretical or speculative. Its object is to reconcile certain apparent contradictions or inconsistencies, not only between different parts, or passages, or expressions of Scripture, but between Scriptural statements or doctrines, and the phenomena of the physical and moral world. For it must deal not only with the Bible but with facts; regarding the facts of nature and providence, and of general history and experience, as being, no less than the histories, doctrines and teachings of Scripture, revelations or manifestations of the Maker and Governor of the world. These all, proceeding from the same Divine source, are and must be really consistent, however at first sight they may sometimes appear to conflict one with another. It is therefore the province of theology to point out the harmony which underlies seeming opposition and discordance in the Word or ways of God, so that we may discern a real and profound order where at first sight confusion or contradiction presents itself to our minds. Thus, in the natural world, the law of gravitation being demonstrated to be a law operating throughout the universe, it is available to explain and reconcile a multitude of facts or appearances which seemed, to minds not instructed in this law of gravitation, to be unrelated, or even opposed and contradictory, one to another.1 [Note: Robert Lee.]

(2) Still more true is it that it is Jesus Christ, and not feelings about Him. Feelings are great aids to devotion; they are often special gifts of God, the play of His Blessed Spirit upon our life of affection, raising it towards high and heavenly things. Yet what is so fugitive, so protean, so unreliable as a feeling? It comes and it is gone; it is intense, and forthwith it wanes; it promises much, and presently it yields nothing but a sense of moral languor and exhaustion that succeeds it. Feeling shouts Hosanna to-day, and to-morrow Crucify; it would pluck out its right eye for the apostle of its choice, and then suddenly he is become its enemy because he tells it the truth.

I will tell you of a want I am beginning to experience very distinctly. I perceive more than ever the necessity of devotional reading. I mean the works of eminent holy persons, whose tone was not merely uprightness of character and highmindedness, but communiona strong sense of personal and ever-living communionwith God besides. I recollect how far more peaceful my mind used to be when I was in the regular habit of reading daily, with scrupulous adherence to a plan, works of this description. A strong shock threw me off the habitpartly the external circumstances of my life, partly the perception of a most important fact, that devotional feelings are very distinct from uprightness and purity of lifethat they are often singularly allied to the animal nature, the result of a warm temperamentguides to hell under the form of angels of light, conducting the unconscious victim of feelings that appear Divine and seraphic, into a state of heart and life at which the very world stands aghast. Cases of this kind came under my immediate cognizance, disgusted me, made me suspect feelings which I had hitherto cherished as the holiest, and produced a reaction. Nevertheless, the only true use of such a discovery is this, that our basest feelings lie very near to our highest, and that they pass into one another by insensible transitions. It is not true to take the tone so fearfully sounded in Tennysons Vision of Sin, or that of Mephistopheles when he sneeringly predicts to Faust the mode of termination for his sublime intuition, after the soliloquy in the forest, when Gretchens image has elevated his soul. The true lesson is to watch, suspect, and guard aspirations after good, not to drown them as spurious. Wordsworth says

True dignity abides with him alone

Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,

Can still suspect, and still revere himself,

In lowliness of heart.

I feel the need of works of this kind, and I shall begin them again.1 [Note: Robertson, in Life and Letters of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, 263.]

(3) It is Jesus Christ Himself, and not His teaching or His work apart from His Person. His work, indeed, can be appreciated only in the light of His Person; His death is at best heroic self-devotion (if it be so much as that) unless His Person is superhuman. If Jesus is only man, or if His Person is left out of view, there is no more reason for reliance on His death than on the death of Socrates. His Sacraments are only picturesque unrealities, unless He who warranted their power lives and is mighty; apart from His Person, they have no more spiritual validity than an armorial bearing or a rosette. And His teaching cannot be represented as a foundation of Christian life, which may be substituted for His Person, and enable us to dispense with it, for the simple reason that the persistent drift of that teaching is directly and indirectly to centre thought, love, adoration upon Himself; as though in Him, as distinct from what He said and did, mankind was to find its true and lasting strength and peace.

This is the secret of Christs power over men. He does not come to discuss with them some empty conundrum, some wretched enigma, that challenges only the intellect; He sets Himself down in the heart, and trains that, brings that into the liberty of His blessed captivity, and out of the heart there comes His kingdom, which can never be moved.2 [Note: J. Parker.]

4. A comprehensive idea of Jesus Christ as the foundation may be found in the very old representation of Him as Prophet, Priest, and King.

(1) Prophet.A Prophet is not merely one who foretells future events. That is but a small and, in some respects, an inferior part of the prophets work. The generic idea of a prophet is one who speaks of God, who reveals the thoughts and proclaims the truth of God. And in this regard Jesus Christ is the Prophet of God, who infinitely transcends all others.

(2) Priest.In former times the priest stood between the sinner and God, and offered sacrifice on account of his sins. The Lord Jesus, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, was fitted to be the medium to stand between our sinful souls and the righteous God; and for sacrifice, He offered Himself without spot unto God. And If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.

(3) King.Christ is also our King. As such He claims our love, our loyal obedience, our grateful homage, and our reverent worship. Instead of obeying the maxims and customs of the world, instead of following our own inclinations, and the uncertain and fitful impulses of our own hearts, let us obey Him. Let His will be supreme.

It is a vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing to our own souls, as if we could choose for ourselves where we shall find the fulness of the Divine Presence, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found, in loving obedience.1 [Note: Dinah Morris, in Adam Bede.]

Close gently, weary eyes,

And let the closing day sing sweetly unto thee

A song of rest, that so the coming day may be

A glad surprise;

Close, weary eyes.

Rest now, oh wayward heart!

Rest in submission comes; then let the swaying trees,

Bending, obedient, at each breath of Gods light breeze

Show thee thy part;

Rest, wayward heart.

Peace, sweet peace, struggling soul!

Waves, hills and stars will say, Seek not to walk by sight.

By faith take all thy stumbling steps, through day and night,

In Gods control.

Peace, struggling soul.

II

The Building

1. Our attention is drawn to the materials used in the building rather than to the building itself. The materials are of two kinds(1) gold, silver, costly stones, that is, those that will pass through fire unscathed; and (2) wood, hay, stubble,materials which fire will consume. There is, therefore, good teaching and bad teaching. Good teaching is the showing forth of Christ Jesus in word and life.

We are, perhaps, beginning to recognize the need of special training, but hundreds of clergymen can be found who would acknowledge that they never had any kind of education in the two branches of their workteaching and preaching. A young clergyman recently, in conversation with me, deplored this. I did not know how to teach, and I have been obliged to try and gain some knowledge of the art by listening to the teachers in the elementary schools. This is the example of a man wise enough to be aware of his deficiencies, and courageous enough to try and repair them. But here is a strange fact. Educated skill is demanded in some callings, and these not the most important; yet in some of the higher or more difficult callings educated skill is not demanded, and is not even deemed to be important. We do not allow our teeth to be pulled out except by a qualified practitioner, but we entrust grave moral responsibilities to untrained men. We require some evidence of practical skill from our cab-drivers, but we hand over the direction of vast national interests to men who have never learned even the rudiments of political and economic science. It is all very puzzling. It belongs to the noble faith of being able somehow to muddle through. The wonder is, not that things are done so well considering how much is given into untrained hands, but that things are done at all.1 [Note: W. Boyd Carpenter, Some Pages of my Life, 324.]

2. What is bad teaching?

(1) A man may interpret Scripture, and yet not bring Christ out of it. He may delight himself in the study; he may be skilful in comparing Scripture with Scripture; he may perceive with a marvellous insight the doctrinal contrasts and harmonies which fill the Bible; he may be wise in combining and reconciling where careless readers see only contradiction and confusion; he may attract listeners by the clearness of his exposition and the variety of his illustration; and yet in all this there may be no savour of Christ and no unction of the Spirit. Men may come and go, depart and return, week by week, where he ministers; they may find information, find instruction, but not find edification, because they find not Christ.

(2) Again, a man may be a sincere Christian, and even in a sense preach Christ, and yet his work may be but as the wood or the stubble because in the Divine he has lost the human; because, in other words, though he knows theology, he knows not man, and, though he understands something of the glory of the Saviour, he is ignorant of the application of that Gospel to the hearts and lives of men. His doctrinal statements are correct and ample; he can discourse with feeling and beauty upon the great revelations of grace; but there is no connecting link, in his preaching, between heaven and earth, between truth and life, between the Saviour of sinners and the sinner whom He came to save. Therefore the Gospel which he enforces floats above his hearers in a region cloudy and inaccessible; they hear the sound thereof, but the voice they hear not; the revelation of Christ is become again in his hands as the letter which kills, rather than as the spirit which gives life.

(3) It may be that all the energies of a ministry have been turned upon controversy; that a congregation which came together to be fed with the sincere milk of the word that it might grow thereby, has been occupied week by week and year after year with vehement declamation or laborious argument against some form of error, supposed to be the peril of the times, upon which the preacher would concentrate all the anxieties and all the efforts of souls given him to guide and lives entrusted to him to regulate.

We naturally look to our symbolical documentsthe Creeds, Catechisms, and other standards of our several Churches, for guidance as to what constitutes the main matter or substance of the Christian religion. But we find upon inspection that the subjects which those books treat of are neither those which are in themselves most necessary and important, nor those which our Lord and His Apostles chiefly insisted on; but they are for the most part the points disputed between different Churchesbetween Romanists and Protestants, between Calvinists and Arminians, and between Trinitarians and Unitarians. So that the books in question set forth the differences which exist among Christians, not their agreements. Now, as a general rule, their agreement is both far greater and far more momentous than their disagreement. I say the things they agree about are far more numerous, and far more essential, than the things they disagree about. These last have often swelled out into magnitude simply by reason of the quarrels respecting them, as a barren island or a sandy waste has sometimes grown into a mighty matter by reason of the struggles of great nations respecting it. In itself it is worth little or nothing; it is great only because of the contest which is carried on.1 [Note: Robert Lee.]

(4) There is a fourth case in which a fatal deadness has fallen upon a ministry in the very attempt to communicate to it a vigorous life. The preacher gives himself to the one aim of making his sermons lively. He counts nothing below the level of pulpit gravity; nothing too secular or too mundane to be made the starting-point of Sunday exhortation. He speaks of giving a healthy tone to common life, and this, not by raising earth to heaven, but by bringing down the heavenly to the level of the earthly. He forgets that the Christian politician and the Christian student and the Christian man of business do not come together in the Lords house to hear their own subjects discussed by one far less fitted to do so than themselves, but rather to be reminded of a subject higher and nobler than their own, a subject in which they may rest altogether from week-day toils and cares, and realize a loftier aim and a deeper unity in things unseen, things heavenly, things Divine.

It is no part of my business to condemn this, that, and the other kind of teaching, but I will tell you what is evidently wood and hay and stubble. Misplaced learning; misplaced speculation; misplaced eloquence; sham philosophy; preaching ones self; talking about temporary, trivial things; dealing with the externals of Christianity, its ceremonial and its ritual; dealing with the morals of Christianity apart from that one motive of love to a dying Saviour which makes morality a reality in human life. All that kind of Christian teaching, remote from daily life and from mens deepest needs, however it may be admired, and thought to be eloquent, original, and on a level with the growing culture of the age, and so on, is flimsy stuff to build upon the foundation of a crucified Saviour. There is no solidity in such work. It will not stand the stress of a gale of wind while it is being built, or keep out the weather for those who house in it; and it will blaze at last like a thatched roof when that day puts a match to it.2 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

III

The Fire

1. The flame plays round both the buildings. What fire is it? The text answers the question for usthe day shall declare it. The Apostle does not think that he needs to say what day. His readers know well enough what day he means. To him and to them there is one day so conspicuous and so often in their thoughts, that there is no need to name it more particularly. The day is the day when Christ shall come. And the fire is but the symbol that always attends the Divine appearance in the Old and in the New Testament.

Many of us who live in London have at some time watched that awful but fascinating sight, the progress of a great fire; we have marked how the devouring element masters first one and then another department of the building which is its victim; but especially we have noted what it consumes and what it is forced to spare, the resistless force with which it sweeps through and shrivels up all slighter materials, and pauses only before the solid barriers of stone or iron, thus trying, before our eyes, the builders work of what sort it is.1 [Note: H. P. Liddon.]

I felt begin

The Judgment-Day: to retrocede

Was too late now. In very deed,

(I uttered to myself) that Day!

The intuition burned away

All darkness from my spirit too:

There stood I, found and fixed, I knew,

Choosing the world. The choice was made;

And naked and disguiseless stayed,

And unevadable, the fact.2 [Note: Browning, Easter-Day.]

2. But He who at the end will judge us once for all, is now and always judging us; and His perpetual presence as the Judge who is constantly probing and sifting us is revealed by events and circumstances which have on our souls the effect of firethey burn up what is frivolous and worthless, and they leave what is solid unscathed. There are many events and situations which act upon us as fire; it will be enough to consider one or two of them.

(1) There is the searching, testing power of a responsible and new position, of a situation forcing its occupant to make a critical choice, or to withstand a strong pressure. Such a new position discovers and burns up all that is weak in a mans faith or character. In quiet times there is nothing to extort the discovery; but when a great effort of action or of resistance becomes necessary, it is soon seen what will and what will not stand the test. All that looks like a hold on solid principle, and is in reality only fancy, or sentiment, or speculation, is then seen to be unserviceable; and if a mans religious mind is composed mainly of such material, a catastrophe is inevitable.

Take the Pope in Brownings The Ring and the Book. The aged man, on the verge of the grave, has the responsibility laid upon him of deciding the fate of Count Guido. He holds the balance between life and death.

In Gods name! Once more on this earth of Gods,

While twilight lasts and time wherein to work,

I take His staff with my uncertain hand,

And stay my six and fourscore years, my due

Labour and sorrow, on His judgment-seat,

And forthwith think, speak, act, in place of Him

The Pope for Christ. Once more appeal is made

From mans assize to mine: I sit and see

Another poor weak trembling human wretch

Pushed by his fellows, who pretend the right,

Up to the gulf which, where I gaze, begins

From this world to the nextgives way and way,

Just on the edge over the awful dark:

With nothing to arrest him but my feet.

And I am bound, the solitary judge,

To weigh the worth, decide upon the plea,

And either hold a hand out, or withdraw

A foot and let the wretch drift to the fall.

Ay, and while thus I dally, dare perchance

Put fancies for a comfort twixt this calm

And yonder passion that I have to bear,

As if reprieve were possible for both

Prisoner and Popehow easy were reprieve!

He weighs all the evidence, the reasons which might be urged in the name of mercy for flinching from the solemn decision.

Quis pro Domino?

Who is upon the Lords side? asked the Count.

I, who write

And he signs the death-warrant.

For I may die this very night

And how should I dare die, this man let live?

(2) Sometimes men surprise us, when placed in a difficult position, by the sudden exhibition of qualities for which no one before had given them credit; the apparently thoughtless show foresight, and the timid courage, and the selfish disinterestedness; and the irresolute perseverance, of which there had been no evidence whatever. The quiet school-boy in an Italian village, whom his playmates name the dumb ox, becomes, almost in spite of himself, the first of the scholars, one of the few greatest thinkers in the world. The officer who has been distinguished for nothing but a punctual regard to duty is suddenly placed in a position to show that he has almost the genius and courage sufficient to roll back the course of history, and to save a falling empire from ruin. The youth whose life has been passed amidst scenes of frivolity, or perhaps of licentiousness, hears one day an appeal to his conscience, his sense of duty, his sense of failure, and wakes from a dream of sensual lethargy to show the world that he has in him the making of a man, aye, the making of a saint.

The sense of power which comes from self-development can only be fruitful for good if it be directed by the profound sense of responsibility, which the perpetual consciousness of life as lived in Gods sight alone can give.1 [Note: Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, i. 185.]

(3) But the Greeks had a stern proverb to the effect that a position of leadership shows what a man is. The real drift of the saying was that in practice it too often shows what he is not. It implies that too generally the discovery would be unfavourable; that the test of high office would, in a majority of cases, bring to light something weak or rotten in the character, which in private life might have escaped detection. History is strewn with illustrations of this truth; the virtuous though weak Emperor, who was floated to power on the surf of a revolution, is by no means the only man of whom it might be written that all men would have judged him capable of ruling others, had he only never been a ruler. How often does manhood open with so much that seems promisingintelligence, courage, attention to duty, good feeling, unselfishness, all that looks like high principleand then a man is put into a position of authority. It is the fire which tests the work he has done in his character. Suddenly he betrays some one defect which ruins everything. It may be vanity; it may be envy; it may be untruthfulness; it may be some lower passion which emerges suddenly, and as if unbidden, from the depths of the soul, and gains over him a fatal mastery. All his good is turned to ill, all is distorted, discoloured; he might have died as a young man, amid general lamentations that so promising a life had been cut short. He does die, as did Nero or Henry VIII., amidst the loudly expressed or muttered thanksgiving of his generation that he has left the world. The fact was, that the position in which he found himself exposed him to a pressure which his character could not bear.

After the Council the King [George iv.] called me and talked to me about racehorses, which he cares more about than the welfare of Ireland or the peace of Europe.1 [Note: The Greville Memoirs, i. 144.]

You remember how the old Tay bridge, before that fatal winter night, was believed to be equal to its purpose; no one of us who had travelled by it high in the air, over what was practically an arm of the sea, thought that it could but do its work for many long years to come, in all winds and weathers. It needed, no doubt, a mighty impact, a terrific rush of wind from a particular quarter, to show that the genius and audacity of man had presumed too largely on the forbearance of the elements; butthe moment came. We, many of us, remember something of the sense of horror which that tragic catastrophe left on the, public mindthe gradual disappearance of the last train, as it moved along its wonted way into the darkness, the suddenly observed dislocation and flickering of the distant lights, the faint sound as of a crash, rising for a moment above the din of the storm, and then the utter darkness, as alltrain and bridge together sank into the gulf of waters beneath, and one moment of supreme agony was followed by the silence of death.2 [Note: H. P. Liddon, 59.]

Not alone in pain and gloom

Does the abhorred tempter come;

Not in light alone and pleasure

Proffers he the poisoned measure.

When the soul doth rise

Nearest to its native skies,

There the exalted spirit finds,

Borne upon the heavenly winds,

Satan, in an angels guise,

With voice divine and innocent eyes.1 [Note: Richard Watson Gilder.]

The Teachers Great Text

Literature

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Palmer (J. R.), Burden-Bearing, 50.

Pusey (E. B.), Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, 103.

Raleigh (A.), Quiet Resting Places, 272.

Robertson (S.), The Rope of Hair, 71.

Scott (C. A.), Christian Character Building, 25.

Trench (R. C.), Shipwrecks of Faith, 62.

Van Dyke (H.), Manhood, Faith and Courage, 237.

Vaughan (C. J.), University Sermons, 170.

Westcott (B. F.), The Bible in the Church, 141.

Westcott (B. F.), Social Aspects of Christianity, 1.

Christian Age, xxviii. 146 (Beecher); xxxii. 114 (Fisher).

Christian World Pulpit, xv. 56 (Snell); xxv. 373 (MCree); xxxvi. 385 (Liddon); xlviii. 68 (Varley); lxii. 86 (Banks).

Keswick Week, 1905, p. 164 (Moore).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Isa 28:16, Mat 16:18, Act 4:11, Act 4:12, 2Co 11:2-4, Gal 1:7-9, Eph 2:20, 2Ti 2:19, 1Pe 2:6-8

Reciprocal: 1Ki 5:17 – costly stones 1Ki 7:10 – the foundation Psa 87:1 – His Eze 13:14 – the foundation Zec 13:9 – bring Mat 7:24 – which Luk 14:30 – General Act 8:5 – preached 1Co 3:10 – I have 1Ti 4:16 – Take Rev 21:14 – and in

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE CHURCHS ONE FOUNDATION

Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1Co 3:11

In recent years this Catholic belief has been assailed. Competent scholars come and tell us that the root of Christianity is not a Person but a doctrine, that the Person is only the prophet, the preacher the publisher of that doctrine. We look in vain in these new theories for the Jesus that we knew.

Here, then, are two views, between which nowadays men make their choice. The one finds the basis of religion in a Person, the other in a teaching. And the critical question, which thousands of thoughtful men and women are to-day debating, is, which of the two shall command their assent?

Now I wish to endeavour to answer, and to help you to answer, this all-important question in the light of certain facts. For we cannot too often remember that we have facts to deal with.

I. Let us consider some facts of primitive belief.Let us inquire what the first generation of Christians thought about Jesus. And for this purpose let us take as representative the earliest Christian witness, the first who left on record his opinion, the Apostle Paul. Now you have to remember that this same St. Paul was himself a part-contemporary of Jesus. He was converted shortly after the death of Jesus, he wrote his first extant letter within twenty-five years of His death, he wrote the whole of his letters within thirty-eight years of His death. No mythical halo, you observe, no glamour of antiquity could in this short time have obscured the historic outline of the Man of Nazareth, to dazzle St. Pauls eyes or mystify his intellect. Now, if you open his very first letterthe first to the Thessaloniansand turn to the very first chapter and the very first verse, you will find an astonishing sentence: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. How remarkable this is! We are so accustomed to the formula and the doctrine it implies, that we fail, perhaps, to realise the wonder of it and the novelty. But with what a thrill of horror would an orthodox Hebrew of the Apostles age have read those words! Remember that the reference is to One Who in living memory died, so to speak, on the scaffold; remember the common belief that cursed, not by man only, but by God, is every one that hangeth on a tree; remember, moreover, that the title Lord, here most emphatically ascribed to Jesus, is the very word which is used by the Greek translators of the Old Testament to render the Hebrew Jehovah; and then conceive the feelings of the Jewish monotheist when he heard of this crucified Sufferer being crowned with the Divine name, and positively linked, as the Giver of grace and peace, with Israels God! I call your attention particularly to the point. St. Paul solemnly couples together Jesus Christ and God. From the very first, it is clear, he found in Jesus some one higher than a man; from the very first he saw shining on the brow of the Victim of Calvary the Divine glory of the Son of God. Could any creed, I ask, be more explicit? Could any loftier claims be made for Jesus than these which were actually made within but forty years of His death? Here surely is a notable fact with which we are compelled to reckon. For the first generation of believers, as for the later Church, the system of Christianity is grounded upon a Person, a Being at once human and superhuman, Which is Jesus Christ.

II. Let us notice what Jesus has to say about Himself.Let us study some facts of original claim. Let us listen to Jesus as He talks with His disciples, on a mountain slope, perhaps, or by the waters of the Sea of Galilee, or in the streets and homes of Bethany and Capernaum. What does He say of Himself? What is the impression of Himself that He conveys? Now if you and I had the privilege of sitting at the feet of Jesus, we should at once have been struck, I think, by one thingby a strange, characteristic undertone of greatness, which runs throughout His discourse. He speaks as some one from another sphere, whose home is far away. And we feel instinctively that here is a mysterya mystery which the rough-and-ready methods of mere human logic are inadequate to sound. Listen, then, attentively, and mark what unprecedented claims He makes. He says He is greater than Jonas, greater than Solomon, greater even than the sacred Temple. The prophets, kings, and saints of olden timeHe stands above them all. Over the very angels He exalts Himself; they are His ministers, subject to His bidding. Towards His disciples His imperiousness is unbounded. He demands, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, that they should live for Him alone, that they should give up all in life they love for Himfather and mother, children, and home, and wife. With God, again, He claims a unique relation. He says, without any attempt at justification, All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. The sublimity of the sage, the speculation of the sophist, the awful wisdom of the anointed priestall this He sweeps aside, proclaiming that He alone of men can fathom the abysses of the Infinite. So too this youthful Galilean carpenter ascribes to Himself an ecumenical importance. He looks on the seething turmoil of nations, races, peoples, and He calls them to His heart, crying, Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. The whole great world may come like a little child and nestle at His bosom. He looks again into the distant future and sees the nations gathered at His judgment seat. The dead come up and the living come up, while He sits majestic on the throne of the Almighty and utters the final dreadful word of life and death. And when we go on to compare His utterance with His character; when we think of His nobility, His sanity, His unexplainable originality, His unconsciousness of sin, so astounding in a man who was really good, why we feeldo we not?that here is one who is quite outside the measure of our little earthly standards. It is no mere man, though unmistakably man, that comes to meet us here. We are constrained to bow in worship. We are compelled to confess that the person thus presented to us can be none other than the Son of God.

III. One great fact still remains to be accounted for, and that is His stupendous influence on the history of mankind.Christ has led captive all the peoples of the civilised world, who find in Him the abiding inspiration of their progress and development. On every sphere of our life has He left His mark. To the politician He has given a law, to the thinker a philosophy, to the poet a song, to the saint a passion. Transcendent works of human genius have been brought forth at His call. The chiselled stone swells into graceful arch, and rises airily into dome and spire, to do Him honour. Music for Him breathes out her sweetest chant: no other name is hymned in strain so touching. For Him the scholar chronicles his finest thought; to Him the hero dedicates his proudest deed; to Him the statesman offers as a votive gift his knowledge, eloquence, and practised skill. What multitudes, too, of obscure and unrecorded lives have been held, possessed, and governed by the influence of Jesus! He has set up a throne in the universal human heart, and millions of every age and race and class and character have yielded to His sway. Tired men, wearied with the frets of life, have found in Jesus rest and full refreshment. Bad men, smirched and polluted with the soil of sin, have come to Jesus and have been made clean, and through His fiery baptism have passed into the righteousness of the Fathers Kingdom. Timid men, trembling on the edge of life, and shivering at the dark unknown that lies before them, have looked to Jesus and dismissed their fears, content to trust themselves to the care of the Good Shepherd. Quite undeniable is the fact of such experience, say of it what you will. Unnumbered are the witnesses. Men and women, young and old, Occidental and Oriental, rich and poor, wise and foolish, all alike bear testimony that they have proved Christ adequate to all their needs, that they have gained from Him the enduring satisfaction of their souls desires and cravings. Now surely all this requires some explanation. All the world over it is true that out of nothing nothing comes. For great results there must be cause proportionate. Then let us ask once more, what cause, what force, what manner of intelligence can have been adequate to produce effects so wonderful? Where is the man who could grip the whole civilised world, and that for centuries? Where is the man whose power is not spent, whose influence is not broken, whose personal fascination is not weakened, as age after age disappears into the past? Could any mere man really have done all this? The experience of the race says No. And the philosophy of human history says No. History bears witness only to a Christ Who is Divine. Reflecting on these facts and weighing them fairly, let a man ask himself whether any ingenious modern explanation will account for them all so well and so fully as the ancient belief of the Catholic Church, that God was in Christ, that Christ is God.

Rev. F. Homes Dudden.

Illustrations

(1) Corinth, in St. Pauls time, was a cosmopolitan city. The most important station on the great trade-route between Rome and the East, it was naturally the meeting-place of men of every race and class and character. Its streets were crowded, somewhat as the streets of London are to-day, with throngs of strangers, representing widely different types and engaged in the pursuit of widely different interests. Here Romans mingled with Greeks, and Jews of Alexandria and Syria with pagans of Asia Minor and the distant East. Here the mantled philosopher elbowed the man of pleasure, and the proud official struggled on his way through surging crowds of traders and slaves and foreign sailormen. A city of infinite variety, a ferment of multitudinous unassimilated forces and activitiessuch was Corinth. Yet it was to this city, with all its many teeming, diverse forms of life, that the Apostle penned that memorable sentence which tells of a unity underlying every difference: Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

(2) Christ the One Foundation. That has been the teaching of the Church from the earliest days till now. In every age and in every land the Church has taught invariably that the determining factor of the Christian religion is the Person of Jesus. That is the essential thing. The Christian religion is not a mere system of doctrine. It is not a mere ethical code. It is not merely a redemptive force. It is above all dependence on a Person. And herein lies its power and its peculiarity, and its novelty.

(3) A Church Father of the second century being pressed with the question, What new thing did the Lord bring us by His coming? replied, Know that He brought all newness in bringing us Himself. The distinctive feature of the new religion is the Person of Jesus.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

A SURE FOUNDATION

Perhaps the chief danger is of treating as foundations what are not foundations at all, but part of the superstructure. And therefore you should take it as a first principle in the investigation that the foundation is nothing which you have laid or can lay. The true foundation lies for you, ready to use, and does not wait for you to make it.

Your faith, your love, your change of character in life, your holiness, your good works, your prayers have nothing in the world to do with the foundation. They are consequences, not causes. The foundation lies far down below all this, and it is often even hidden by these good and beautiful things which rest upon it.

I. What then is the foundation of your hope, of your eternal life?You perhaps say, My trust is in God. I do not find my foundation anywhere in myself, I find it in God. I find it in the love of God. The love of God! The love of God is not all you want. God has many attributes, and all equal, because they are all infinite. God is justice; God is truth. Could you find your foundation in the justice of God? Could you find your foundation in the truth of God? Has not God said, The soul that sinneth, it shall die? You have sinned, and how can you not die? Love can never cancel truth. All the attributes of God must unite to pardon you. If you trust only in the love of God, it would not be God at all. Therefore your basis is false, your foundation is wrong.

II. Is there then a foundation deeper and more sound than the love of God?Is there what we wanta foundation which shall reconcile and combine all the attributes of God? Yes. If there could be found, if there could be found a Being so good and so vast that His suffering and His death should be an equivalent to the suffering and the death of the whole world, and if He were willing to do it, then God might accept that equivalent, and then, with perfect justice, pardon the whole world.

III. The true foundation is God in the harmony of all the attributes of the Godhead.His love makes Him, as a Father, willing, and longing, and happy to forgive all His children, and His justice makes it to be unjust to punish what He has already punished in the Substitute. The punishment would then be twice, and that would be unjust. O wonder of wonders! O wonderful plan of salvation! Look at it! More than eighteen hundred years ago I had my punishment. I was punished in my Substitute; the member in the Head. My punishment is all over; I cannot be punished. Then I am safe, quite safe! Gods love, and Gods truth, and Gods honour, and Gods Word were all committed to Him. I am safe!

But what has led me to, and placed me in, that position of safety? Simply and only the act of believing. You cannot believe it unless the Holy Spirit puts it into your heart to believe. Then you will feel it. And the Holy Spirit will put it into your heart. And so we bring in the Holy Spirit.

Thus we come to our conclusion that our foundation lies in the TrinityFather, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are all united to us in Christ. If He had not come and died for us it could not have been so. The inner principle of all is Christ. He is the keystone of the covenant. He is the keystone of the foundation. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

Ministering in Switzerland not long ago, in one of the most picturesque of mountain churches, I was sorry to find that the rock on which one of the buttresses of the chancel of the little church was built showed unmistakable signs of crumbling and decay. You could not, remarked a friend to me, quote this as an illustration of the safety of the house that was builded on the rock. No, but I can quote it as an illustration of the danger of a false foundation. That rock seemed firm and stable once, but it was not tested; if it had been, it would never have been chosen. It is even so with many a foundation on which men build their hopes of heaven.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. There is but one foundation and that is Christ, which God laid in Zion which is the church, and it was done once for all when He died in Jerusalem and rose from the grave. When Christ was preached to the Corinthians or to any others, that is what is meant by laying the foundation there.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 3:11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The allusion is to that grand announcement, Isa 28:16, Behold, I have laid in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stent, of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. There is a peculiar appropriateness in this quotation, from the similarity of the warnings which follow, in both cases. Christ, says the apostle hereincluding all those doctrinal conceptions which are inseparable from right apprehensions of Himselfis the great Foundation of faith and ground of hope.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

That is, no other foundation can man lay, than that which is already laid by me; namely, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and faith in him.

The ministers of Christ ought to lay no other foundation than Christ: they are to lead their people to, and build them upon, no other rock but Christ.

All threatenings, promises, commands, duties, privileges, are to be preached and pressed with respect to Jesus Christ; he is to be laid as the only foundation in respect of knowledge, in respect of faith, in respect of justification, in respect of intercession and acceptance with God.

The minister’s great work is to set Christ forth in all his glorious fulness, to represent him in all his offices, as a glorious object for the eye of our faith to look unto, and fix upon.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Vv. 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The , for, announces an explanation of the warning contained in the , let him consider well. The refers, not to 1Co 3:11 taken separately,this verse is only a reservation, and, so to speak, a relatively to the following ,but to the whole passage, 1Co 3:12-15. The apostle means that his work, all that has been his, has been relatively simple. He has had nothing else to do than take the foundation laid by God Himself in the person of the living Christ, dead and risen again, and lay it in the heart by preaching, as the foundation of Christian faith and salvation. The participle , which is laid, refers to God’s work, and the verb to the labour of the preacher who founds the Church by testifying of this work. If the preacher would lay another foundation, it would be the beginning of a new religion and a new Church, but not the continuation of the Christian work. Now Paul is speaking here of preachers assumed to be Christians.

But the work of those who have to construct the building on the foundation laid is not so simple; and hence they should take good care as to the way in which they do it.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid [of or by God the Father (1Pe 2:6); God laid him by gift, Paul by preaching], which is Jesus Christ. [Paul had laid Christ as the foundation (Mat 16:18; Act 4:11-12; Eph 2:20); and others (each being individually responsible, hence the singular) had been building carnal, worldly-minded factions upon it, and these are warned that the superstructure should comport with the foundation, for so worthy a foundation should have a correspondingly worthy structure.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

11. For other foundation is no one able to lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the impregnable rock on which every soul must build his heavenly superstructure, there being no other alternative except the drifting, sinking sand.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 3:11. Justifies 1Co 3:10 b, which confines our attention to the manner of continuing Paul’s work, by declaring that there can be no other foundation than that which he has already laid. Christ is the foundation of the church, objectively; inasmuch as upon His death and resurrection rest His people’s faith and hope. He is so subjectively, by His presence in them. The rock on which we stand is both beneath our feet and within our hearts. This foundation, laid objectively for the whole church in the Great Facts, was laid subjectively in the hearts of the Christians at Corinth as the firm ground of their personal hopes, by Paul. Consequently, all other Christian work done at Corinth will be a continuation of that which he began. This, of course, leaves out of sight the almost impossible case of the extinction of the church: in which case the work would need to be begun again.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

3:11 {5} For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

(5) Moreover, he shows what this foundation is, that is, Christ Jesus, from whom they may not turn away in the least amount in the building up of this building.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Christ Himself is the foundation of the church (Mat 16:18; cf. Isa 28:16; Rom 9:33; 1Pe 2:6). Basing a church on the work of any other person, even Peter, is improper. Paul laid the foundation for the church in Corinth when he preached Christ and Him crucified there. The apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church in a secondary sense only (Eph 2:20). [Note: See Barrett, pp. 87-88.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)